


You and Me, Got A Whole Lot of History.

by SimplexRange



Category: Sword Art Online, The 100 (TV)
Genre: Clexa, F/F, F/M, Fighting, First Person, Love, Pining, Romance, Slow Burn, Sword Art Online - Freeform, Virtual World, hidden identity, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-11-17 13:58:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11276712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimplexRange/pseuds/SimplexRange
Summary: "I wanted to give her some piece of me. Something real and concrete that she could hold with her. Something to let her know that I saw her. Something to prove that she was special to me. Something to show her that when I looked into her eyes, I felt something far stronger than the strength of any enemy I've faced over the last two years, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything other than the one word that escaped my lips."Blue," I whispered.Her head shot up and I felt her eyes on me, searching for something. For what? I couldn't say, but out of the corner of my eye I saw the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Her warm, inviting, loving, and incredible, heart-clenching smile. I felt myself release a breath that I might have been holding since we met."***Lexa joins SAO with her family. She expected it to be a fun experience, but then she became trapped inside with only two ways out. Beat the game or die. Lexa, afraid to fight, crafts a new identity for herself and hides under a mask so that nobody knows who she really is. Inside she meets Clarke, whom she realizes is worth dying for.(NOBODY IMPORTANT DIES. CLEXA WILL LIVE!)





	1. Link, Start!

**Author's Note:**

> Lexa has been desperately looking forward to a break from college. The summer after her freshman year in college is when Sword Art Online is released! Lexa enters the new world with her sister Anya and her cousin Lincoln. Everything seems great until they learn they are trapped, and the only way to leave is to win, or die. Her fear takes over and paralyzes her. The only way she can face the world is if she does it with a mask. Metaphorically and literally.
> 
>  
> 
> Hey guys! I started this story back in december and then didn't update after January. I got extremely busy with college and It was actually kind of hard to write this. I was struggling with things after the third chapter. Part of that reason is because writing in third person is hard, which is what I originally wrote this in. But this story is very much internal dialogue and feelings heavy. SO I decided to rewrite it and start again in first person. I think that will give me more motivation to write it. I'm currently in the process of rewriting my old chapters. Not too many people read this the first time, but if you did then please know that I'm changing some plot points! (how the world works etc.) 
> 
> Anyways, I really hope you enjoy. Link, start!

June 7, 2016

I was excited. More than excited. This summer was going to be the vacation and escape I’d been dying to have ever since I stepped into the halls of my high school. I pushed myself to succeed in my classes and extracurriculars. I was the president of the book club, a member of the Mathletes, and I always took a minimum of four AP classes each year. Senior year I really pushed myself to the limit and took eight. There were only seven classes in a day but the first semester I took AP government and the second I took AP economics. It was one of the most stressful years of my life, but it was all worth it when I got accepted into multiple ivy league schools. It was everything I was working toward. I finally had my pick of the top schools in the nation, but somehow I found myself going to the University of Texas instead. Why?

Because I couldn’t even dream of leaving the state where my family was, especially where Anya was. My sister meant everything to me, means everything to me. She got a golf scholarship and immediately packed her bags and moved three hours away to attend her first year at UT. I missed her like crazy. I only saw her for a month during the winter break. It was one of the worst years I had to deal with. That was also a big reason why I pushed myself so hard during my senior year. I was insanely bored and wanted the time to fly just so I could be reunited with Anya.

When I told her I declined the admission into the ivy league schools, Anya was outraged. She couldn’t believe I would do that for her. Once she got over her initial anger with me, she smiled and I saw the tears well up in her eyes through the video on our Skype call.

A few months later and I too was moving three hours away to attend my first year at UT. It’s mandatory for all freshman to live on campus at the dorms and once you were done with that first year you were allowed to live wherever you wanted. I really didn’t want to have to share a room with a stranger, which is why I felt so much relief when Anya broke the news that she would suffer living at the dorms one more time just so I didn’t have to live with a complete stranger. From then on out it was the two of us again just like how I always wanted it to be. We would study together, get dinner together, and laugh together every day. Occasionally we would fight like all siblings, which is what made some nights pretty uncomfortable when there was no room to storm off to. The entire dorm room we shared was two beds, two desks, a sink, and two closets. There wasn’t even a bathroom to escape to, but thankfully we didn’t ever stay mad for long. 

And although we fought sometimes we still loved each other and wanted to continue living together. We made a promise to rent an off campus apartment together for my sophomore year and her junior year, and we did. The week before the dorms closed for the summer, Anya and I went apartment hunting and rented the best one we found within our budget. We moved in and were officially roommates with doors. 

And thank god my first year at college was over, because it still felt like I never got a break even after the dreadful senior year in high school. I was taking more than a full course load and working as an assistant at a law firm. This summer was going to be exactly what I needed to destress. I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face just thinking about how much I looked forward to the next three months. 

“Quit daydreaming and teach me how to play this stupid game.” I heard Anya grumble while throwing her hand of cards onto the sidewalk.  
I raised my eyes in amusement. “It makes perfect sense. 2’s clear everything as long as ‘everything’ is equal to the amount of 2’s you play. You can’t play one 2 on three 5’s. You would need three 2’s to clear that. Just like you would need two 2’s to clear that pair of 4’s you just tried to clear, but why would you ever do that? That’s a stupid play!” I chuckled and crossed my arms over my chest. It was always funny trying to teach people how to play “Presidents” because nearly every person ended up being confused in the same way, but to me the game was incredibly easy to understand since I had been playing it since I was a sophomore in high school. I used to get annoyed when people would make stupid plays or break the rules, but I forced myself to try and remember that I used to be the same way when I first started playing. 

I watched as the crease between Anya’s brows deepened. “Well, if it doesn’t clear everything then you shouldn’t say it can clear everything.” 

“Well, you do make a fair point,” I laughed. “But we aren’t even playing the game right.”

Anya groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. I had to fight back another laugh as I tightened my lips together. “Are you serious? This game is already confusing as is. There are more rules?”

“You can’t really play with two people. The winner is pretty much predetermined once each player receives half the deck. Once Lincoln gets here we can play for real. The game is actually playable with three people. Four people is even better because you can throw in the joker card,” I wiggled my eyebrows when those last three words escaped my lips. 

“I’m not sure you can even get me to play again after this round. This is too ridiculous, but I have to know what the joker card does.” She squinted at me, obviously waiting for me to tell her what the joker card did. 

From my many years on the Mathletes I learned how to keep a poker face in every situation, but I really couldn’t help it when the corners of my mouth lifted into a grin. “The joker card clears absolutely everything.”

There was a long moment of silence. It felt like I could actually see the cogs turning in Anya’s head. I stifled a laugh when I saw her open her mouth only to close it again several times. She responded to me with what I would definitely not call an inside voice. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” 

I couldn’t help the immense fit of laughter that escapes from my lungs. 

“You can’t have a card called a ‘clear everything card’ and a ‘clear absolutely everything card’. This is just stupid. I refuse to play this game anymore,” Anya declared as she reached over to snatch the cards in my hand off the concrete to slip them back in the deck box, “and I refuse to play SAO with you now. I can’t trust your choice of games anymore.”

Ah, yes. SAO. Sword Art Online. That was the reason why summer was going to be the perfect vacation and escape for me. It was the only thing people were talking about for the three years leading up to this day. The idea of SAO was incredible when it was first announce. It was an idea that nobody ever thought would be possible, but there it was being developed, and I was going to be able to participate in what would probably be known as the greatest video game in history, not to mention the greatest technological development in history. The developers said it was going to be a fully immersible world where your mind would be transferred into a virtual world that doesn’t even feel virtual. Everything was going to feel real. Everything I see, feel, hear, smell, and taste would feel real. I mean, how cool does that sound? 

The creator of the NerveGear, the console that connects your consciousness to the game, Nia Azgeda, even went as far as saying that life in SAO is real. She said that aside from the world inhabiting mythical creatures and combat with no pain, the world of SAO is nearly indistinguishable from living a real life. 

I was ecstatic when I heard the news. I’d always loved video games, and as much as I loved school and all of my achievements I sometimes wished I did live in a video game. The pressure to succeed sometimes became way too much and video games were my only solace. Being an aspiring lawyer and politician was absolutely exhausting. If I didn’t have video games I would probably never relax, but in 10 hours I was going to have possibly the best summer of my life, because SAO would finally be released. I couldn’t feel more ready to give up my real life for just a few hours. 

“Hey,” I gave Anya a weak punch on the shoulder, “you wouldn’t have camped for a week outside of a Best Buy with your sister unless you wanted to play with me. And besides, I was with you when they announced the game. You were so excited for the next three years to play. You thought the idea of the NerveGear and SAO was so cool! So don’t play with me. I know you, Woods.” 

“Rude, but true,” she replied with a shrug. I felt my eyes roll instinctually, but I smiled nonetheless. “I can’t believe we are the first in line for the release. I thought we’d be at the end of a long ass line for only camping a week before the release. I expected everyone and their dog to start camping a month early. What time is it?” She pointed at my watch.

My eyes drooped to my wrist. It was pretty dark out, which made it pretty hard to make out the digital numbers. The street lamps gave us enough light to play with the white cards, but the black watch was proving to be a challenge to read. I squinted, “Uh, just past 10.”

“Lincoln should be here soon. The drive is only two hours from College Station to Austin. I can’t wait to have another person here to keep watch while I sleep. I’m stick of having to wake up after two hours because you can’t keep your pretty eyelids open,” she was teasing me. I knew it. 

I lifted my chin arrogantly. “I’ll take that as a compliment. A queen needs her beauty rest.”

“Ass,” Anya shot back. I knew she wasn’t serious. We had a very loving, but very sassy relationship. And as if my knowledge of her wasn’t enough she smiled warmly after the insult. 

After another five minutes of our sisterly banter, a pair of headlights from a red car entering the parking lot nearly blinded me after being in the dark for so long. Turn your brights off, man. A few seconds later a familiar dark skinned man exited the vehicle. He turned to face the front of the store and smiled brightly. I recognized that smile. “Woods!” He screamed at the top of his lungs from the middle of the lot. 

Anya jumped up to her feet and I followed immediately after. We screamed back in unison. “Other Woods!” 

Boy did I miss my cousin. Almost as much as I missed Anya during the year she was gone. While Anya and I decided to make the move from Houston to Austin to attend UT, Lincoln decided to move from Houston to College Station to attend A&M. I always found it funny when people would ask if we ever fought, going to rival schools and all, because I was never one for school pride. 

When Lincoln reached the sidewalk where Anya and I were camping out at he immediately wrapped us into a tight bear hug and spoke softly, “The Woods clan back again! I’ve missed my baby cousins so much.” He gave us a rather big smile. 

I chuckled when I heard Anya groan with annoyance before stating “I’m two months younger than you, dumbass.”

It was all three of us laugh for a minute. I wiped a tear away from my cheek. I had to admit, it felt so good seeing Lincoln again. The three of us were inseparable before they both moved away, and even then we all kept in touch through a group chat. I laughed just thinking about the inside joke they had where Lincoln was the “green man out” because he was the only one between the three of us with an Android phone. Anya and I had iPhones and when we first made a group chat with Lincoln, our blue messages turned green. He liked the joke back that he was the unique one. I was broken from my thoughts when Anya asked spoke again. 

“Please tell me your aren’t tired after your drive and can keep watch on our spot for a few hours. I seriously need some sleep.”

“Yeah, no problem. I took an eight hour nap before driving here so I’m fully rested. You guys sleep.” 

“I would kill for an 8 eight hour nap right now,” Anya grumbled sleepily. 

“Well, fret no more, now is your chance,” he bounced on his toes. 

“Are you sure? You won’t be bored sitting out here alone while Anya and I sleep?” I felt bad making Lincoln sit out in the humid night after driving for so long. We hadn’t seen each other in almost a year, but as much as I wanted to keep him company, I was exhausted. 

“Nah. I brought my portable phone chargers. I’ll be entertained for a while.”

I squinted and peered at him curiously trying to figure out if he was being genuine or just felt bad for us.

“Seriously. Sleep. Now. Go.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled anyway. I jumped into his arms and kissed him on the cheek to thank him before verbally expressing my gratitude. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! Wake us up at six, please!” 

I turned around and entered the tent with Anya before she poked her head out to yell out “thanks, cousin!” and zipped up the front flap of the tent. 

I could hear the smile on Lincoln’s face when he laughed. My body flung itself onto the sleeping bag the moment I saw it. 

****

I turned my head to see the huge crowd behind us now. Last night there were definitely a lot of people waiting, but it was as if a plane landed in the parking lot and dropped off a whole set of passengers desperate to get their hands on the NerveGear and a copy of SAO. When I walked out of the tent an hour before, I was shocked to see the herd of people who appeared out of nowhere. Lincoln must have seen the shock on my face, because he laughed and told me that it sucked to be those people as they were all likely to go home empty handed. The demand of SAO was too big. 

But Anya, Lincoln, and I were first in line and definitely wouldn’t be going home empty handed. The store was set to open in twenty minutes, which would no doubt be the longest twenty minutes of my life. My heart rate quickened in anticipation. I felt the sweat as it began to collect on my forehead and under my arms. I couldn’t tell if it was due to the Texas heat, or if It was because I couldn’t slow down my breathing. Probably a mixture of both, I thought. 

As I moved my gaze from the crowd down to my watch, I couldn’t help but wonder what the game held for her future. Hardly anybody knows anything about the game. The developers and testers wouldn’t share anything. Would there be quests? Would I get cool outfits? Will I create my own character? Will I look the same? Will I make friends? What if I see somebody from school? I’m sure I will. This game is way too big for a small indie audience. Everybody and their dog will play, probably. Will I be any good? I kind of hope so… It would be cool to look like a badass warrior who everybody envies for their strength… 

I was broken from my thoughts when I felt a sharp elbow nudge into my side. I jumped and picked my head up. Lincoln laughed and pointed at the front door to the Best Buy. And employee was walking out. My heart rate quickened once more, which I didn’t think was possible, as I watched the young man no older than me saunter his way over to the front of the line with a pad of paper. 

He spoke loudly to reach the people at the back of the line. He told us how everything would work. He would rip a piece off the pad and write a number on it starting from 1 and so on to make sure that nobody would cheat and cut in line to grab the console and game before the person who in front of them who waited longer. The man made his way to Anya and handed her the first piece of paper with the 1 on it. He then handed me a 2 and Lincoln a 3. I felt giddy. It was finally becoming a reality! Three years of waiting was finally over. I was walking into the store to grab my copy of SAO and the NerveGear. I practically ran to the front counter when I crossed the threshold into the building. Anya was in the process of paying for her items when I stepped behind her. She signed the receipt and stepped away with the biggest smile I have ever seen on her face. I didn’t even know her mouth could stretch that wide… is she breaking skin? 

Before I could even walk to the cashier I had to grab Anya by the collar of her shirt because she was looking like she was about to sprint to the car and leave to play the game without us. 

“Hey, hey, calm down.” I laughed. “You’re my ride home so you better not leave now, eager beaver.” 

She scoffed back at me. “Lincoln can drive you home. I have a game to play.” She eyed her bag containing the game hungrily. 

I giggled at her reaction. “Hold your horses. I’m sure you can wait five minutes.” All Anya did was sigh. 

Anya never did calm down though. I kept thinking that she was going to disappear from behind me at any second, which is why I kept stealing glances behind me to make sure she didn’t. Finally, Lincoln and I finished paying for the items and I gave Anya my blessing to run off to the car. When I walked outside again, noticing all the jealous looks the people in line were giving me, Anya was already waiting in the car calling me over. “Move your butt, slowpoke!” 

I hopped in the car and waited the excruciating 20 minutes it took to drive back to the apartment. Anya pulled the car into the driveway with Lincoln following right behind. I didn’t even have time to blink before Anya was already closing the car door behind her and power walking to the front door to their shared apartment. She’s more eager than me, and that’s saying something. I shook my head and exited the car, calling out to Anya to lock the doors. 

The three of us barged into the apartment and immediately began unboxing the NerveGear. Few words were exchanges as we all worked in silence to set up our consoles. It required that the headset be plugged into the wall and connected to the internet. Then SAO needed to be downloaded onto the headset, which had taken about 25 minutes at the time when Anya growled, “Ugh. How much longer is this going to take? I can’t wait another minute.” 

Lincoln snorted. “You are so impatient. You nearly broke my nose when you whipped around the corner with the scissors. I can’t believe I missed you.” He received a punch in the shoulder after that remark, but they both laughed anyway. “Hey,” he started again, “what are we supposed to say to activate the connection between ourselves and the NerveGear again?”

I dug around the box for the instruction manual. I picked up the safety guide, tossed it aside along with other various plastic bags with useless manuals inside when I found the instructions. I flipped through the pages until I found what I was looking for. “Link, start,” I said. “It’s voice activated and the mind controlled. Nobody can turn it on or shut it off aside from the one wearing it. The only way somebody can disconnect the payer is by unplugging it from the wall. It immediately logs the player out. Mothers everywhere are going to have a field day. Children will hate it.”  
“I can see the headlines now,” Lincoln joked. 

After a small chuckle from me and Anya, a small “ding” was heard from all three headsets. I lifted my head to find Lincoln and Anya do the same. 

The corners of my mouth lifted into a grin. “It’s ready,” was the only thing I managed to say in my excitement. 

Lincoln looked between me and Anya, “Are we?” 

“Hell yeah! Let’s go already!” Anya snatched her headset off the table and jumped on a large futon, causing a loud thud to ring through my ears. 

I laughed, the smile lingering on my face as I reached for my own headset before lowering myself on the futon next to Anya. The NerveGear suggest the players to lay down somewhere comfortable since the connection basically put them to sleep. I saw Lincoln lean against the back of the small couch adjacent to Anya and I when I put on my headset, silence taking over the room. The only sound I heard was my own breathing. I took a deep breath. 

“Link, start!”

And the world went dark.


	2. Aincrad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa, Lincoln, and Anya enter SAO for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited to italicize thoughts. Forgot that AO3 doesn't keep my format.

It was as if the whole world I’d grown up in vanished only to be replaced by a vast expanse of white nothingness. There was no sound, no smell, not even my own body was visible. Nothing at all until black, blocky text faded into view and seemingly floated amongst the barren white area. It was a terms and conditions page. _Figures even a virtual world would have one._ I could feel myself laughing, but I couldn’t hear anything except for my own thoughts. The terms and conditions asked if the player was consenting to the connection between the NerveGear and the player’s mind. Unsure of how exactly to consent since I didn’t have a mouse or a physical hand to click anything, I voiced my agreement in my head. The text flashed a bright green before disappearing.

Soon after the text disappeared, a mirror materialized in its place and I could see myself in the reflection. Well, I could see a poorly rendered version of myself that looked like I was fed through a paper shredder and taped back together. Above the mirror rested a status bar showing the progress of my connection to the NerveGear. It slowly increased in length until it was just an inch away from completion. My reflection was sharpening quickly, no longer looking like I was mauled by a paper shredder. When the bar was complete I could see myself not only in the mirror, but when I looked down. My toes wiggled and my fingers stretched. _Whoa. I can feel my muscles and bones crack._

The tattoos on my body were peaking out beneath a white cloth wrapped around my chest. My hair cascaded across my left shoulder, displaying the few split ends I had been dying to cut. The mirror was now gone and the only thing that occupied the white room was me. Testing my voice, I let out a loud “Hello?” _Talking feels the same. Even my voice sounds the same. This is so bizarre._

A few moments of silence later and screen, a menu, appeared with 3 options listed. The title of the menu was “Starter Packs”. The first choice was a simple sword and shield combo. The sword was silver with a black handle and a matching silver shield to go with it. It looked like any basic sword you’d find in a video game. The second choice didn’t have a shield. It was a really thick and large looking silver sword that I thought no doubt many burly men would choose to show off their real-life strength. The third option also didn’t have a shield. It was all black, thin, and longer than the other two.

 _I hate decisions like this._ Trying to decide which was the best option for me, I hovered my hand over the first option hoping to find some sort of description of each choice. Thankfully there was. The sword and shield combo was best suited for players who wanted to focus equal attention on defense and offense. Never being a big fan of choosing shields in combat video games, I opted out of that one. Next. The heavy sword was described as being the perfect match for people who loved the brute force of attacks and didn’t want to worry about strategy. _That seems like fun._ I almost picked that one right then and there without a second thought. The idea of dominating an enemy with a single strike was appealing until I realized I might look a little ridiculous with a sword the same size as my body. _Maybe not_. Finally, the final sword description came up describing what I thought seemed absolutely perfect. A thin and long sword suitable for players who were small, agile, and light on their feet with a desire for speed. It just so happened to be a bonus that the sword was all black, my favorite shade to wear. With a smile overtaking my face I selected the final option.

The menu disappeared and was substituted with line of text reading “Enter Sword Art Online?”

“Oh, I’m so ready.” I heard myself say almost instinctually as there was nobody around to even hear me. I raised my hand and pressed the button for confirmation and the white room vanished in an instant.

All of a sudden I was in a huge plaza with thousands of people yelling in excitement, running, jumping, and swinging their swords haphazardly on a cobblestone path circling a beautiful fountain in the middle of the plaza. Wooden carts littered the edges of the wall. Each cart had a “vacant” sign on it. There were two wooden carts painted dark green. One of the carts had a steak and bread illustrated on the front. The other illustration was of a crystal. Behind each cart stood a person posed with their arms crossed over their chest. They didn’t look like a typical player, and were most likely NPCs, I thought. They probably sold necessary provisions for players.

Around me I could hear other players asking questions with a mixture of confusion and wonder. A few players sitting on the edge of the fountain waved their left hands in the air in front of their faces. The action caused a light blue menu to appear. I mirrored the motion and watched as the same menu dropped down in front of my eyes. It was a standard game menu one would typically find in a video game. There was an inventory, a friends list, and a logout button among other things not as important. The logout button was a faded grey color while the text on the other submenus were pure white. _Weird. Must not be working temporarily to allow some type of tutorial to be completed._ I shrugged it off and waved my left hand again, hoping that was the correct command to close the menu. It was.

I took in my surroundings again. My gaze shifted from player to player and I noticed that we all seemed to be wearing the same outfit. It was an off-white and light brown combination that reflected the type of outfit you’d think of a peasant wearing. And although everybody had the same outfit on, one person stood out among them all.

“Lincoln!” I called out to him, waving my arms simultaneously hoping to catch his attention from across the crowd. He turned immediately, searching for the source of my voice, and after a moment his eyes caught mine. I watched as a smile formed on his face before he began charging in my direction.

“Lexa! You made it! How cool is this place?”

“It’s incredible.” I shook my head and spun around in a circle, motioning to all of our surroundings. When I faced him again, I took in his choice of equipment. Hooked on a strap of leather across his chest and over his back rested the heavy sword I almost chose before realizing it would be a huge mistake. “I see you picked the macho-man sword. Fitting.”

He threw his head back and chuckled. “Hey, hey. No teasing. I could turn it straight around on you and comment about your fitting sword. Really, Lexa? Black. Again?” He pointed at the sword hooked onto the side of my belt.

I felt my lips purse and my eyes squint. “Point taken.”

“Have you seen Anya yet?”

“Nope. No idea where she is. I just got here and saw you over all the giant heads. It is really packed in here, isn’t it?”

He nodded in response. “Yeah. How about we head out of here and see if we can find something to test our swords on. Maybe she’s stuck on her sword choice,” he ended with a snort.

I nodded in agreement and we searched for a way out of the plaza. To the right of the two NPC carts was a tall archway that looked like it opened out into a grassy area. I began moving toward the exit with Lincoln following closely behind. Dozens of players bumped into us while we wove our way through the crowd. I was never too fond of crowded spaces and was really looking forward to removing myself from the rest of the SAO population and setting off on a journey with my family.

We eventually crossed the threshold out of the plaza. Beyond the door lied an enormous grassland with a few scattered hills and a forest bordering the area. There were wild boar and other small critters littered all over the hills. It reminded me of a large park I used to ride my bike at, just less magical and I obviously never saw any wild boar there.

I kneeled down onto the grass and took a blade between my fingers and rubbed it gently. It was as organic and velvety feeling as the real thing. I wondered if I would ever get used to the world.

“Hey, look!”

I was broken out of my thoughts when Lincoln shouted while nudging the top of my shoulder with one hand and pointing off into the distance with the other. There was a woman standing on top of one of the hills about a quarter of a mile away. She had her sword pointed towards an angry looking boar. It lunged at her, successfully knocking her to the ground. From the distance we could easily hear her yell out “you little bitch!”

“I think we know who that is,” I laughed. I stood up and grabbed Lincoln’s hand, dragging him with me as I ran in the direction of Anya.  
“Having trouble?” Lincoln teased once we reached her.

“How’d you notice?” Anya replied, obviously annoyed. “I’m trying to get some meat drops. These boar each drop ‘boar meat’. I heard some players talking about the vacant carts in the plaza. There are carts and stands located in every town, and players can claim them and sell their items. At least that’s what they were told when they asked the NPC vendors. I figured I’d get a head start on everybody else and sell some food, but these damn board keep evading all my attacks!” Anya sheathed her sword. It seems that she picked the same sword as I did.

“How do you fight?” I was curious to know because I was highly anticipating my first fight.

“As far as I can tell it’s free for all, except we have special abilities we would never have in the real world. Imagine it like you’re sword fighting at home, but using your abilities to enhance your skill. In example, in the real world you would run at something and swing your sword, but in SAO you focus on the target and can lunge at them quickly with precision. You can even high jump! That shit would have surely given me a broken knee if I did that in real life.”

“You seem to know a lot already. We’re going to have to catch up.” Lincoln said enthusiastically.

“I understand it, but that doesn’t mean I’m any good. As you could probably tell I was getting my ass handed to me a minute ago. And by a level 1 boar! It’s humiliating,” Anya groaned.

“Hey, it’s the first day. I bet a week of playing and we’ll all be pros.” Lincoln always had an optimistic nature to himself.

I tuned out the rest of the conversation because I was way too interested in fighting. The moment Anya told us how to fight I had been dying to try it out, despite being a little afraid of getting hurt. I knew I was being ridiculous though, because you can’t die in this game. It’s all virtual. “Does it hurt to get attacked?” I finally inserted myself back into the discussion.

“Not at all. You can feel it, but it’s not pain. It’s hard to describe. Go ahead and try it.” Anya moved out of the way, motioning to the boar she had been previously trying to kill.

“How do I charge and high jump?”

“What I did was focus on the target and start running and it just happened. I guess the game mechanics understand your intentions and make it work. Same with jumping. Just imagine it and jump. It’ll happen. However, I couldn’t do it without having a target, and you’ll know when you have one. Just focus.”

I wasn’t feeling too confident, but I was willing to try. After going over Anya’s instructions in my head one more time, I turned around and stared at the boar, squinting. I tried my best to focus 100% on the animal and suddenly it was like a lens was over my eyes like some type of spy glasses. The boar was glowing and in focus, and the background was fuzzy in contrast. Anya was right. I would definitely know when I had a target.

I kept my eyes focused on the glowing boar. It was sniffing the grass below, completely unaware of myself standing just a few yards away. I took a few steps back in an attempt to increase the distance between myself and the animal. I wanted to get the most out of my very first fight. I felt the adrenaline take over and my heart rate increase, which surprised me. The developers even added an artificial heartbeat. _That’s so cool._

Before I even realized what was happening, I was charging rather quickly toward the boar. My legs had a mind of their own, moving faster than I could have ever imagined possible. I was trying my best to memorize every small detail of what was happening so that I could quickly strategize how to kill my opponent, but the adrenaline and speed clouded everything. I didn’t even realize I was now 8 feet in the air with my sword pointed downwards, aiming right at the boar’s head. There was a rush spreading in my head knowing that I was about to land my first kill in SAO. Well, that is until the boar lazily moved out of the way, forcing my body to slam onto the hard ground. Once the rush of adrenaline dissipated, I heard the laughter that my sister and cousin let out.

Anya was doubling over, looking as if she was in pain, in laughter. “That was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” She was out of breath now. “I really thought you were gonna land that, but boy was I wrong.

Lincoln butted in with his own asinine comment. “Right. The only thing you landed on was your ass!”

I couldn’t help but laugh too. It was pretty funny, although a little embarrassing. Anya was right though. It didn’t hurt at all, but you could definitely feel it. My collision on the grass felt similar to having a thumbtack scrape against skin. A little sting and pinch, but not painful enough to really hurt, just enough to feel something. “You’ve gotta admit though, I looked pretty cool doing that. Well, up until I fell on my ass.”

“Alright, alright. Don’t go getting a big head now. Let’s go back into town. I want to learn more about the game.” Anya began walking off without waiting for a reply. She had always been a very unique individual. She was blunt and sarcastic, and had never had any patience to wait around, but I really wouldn’t want her any other way.

We headed back to the plaza to meet other players and hopefully discover new wonders within the game. There were two boys that looked close to our ages. One was a tall and lanky guy named Jasper. The other was a shorter boy named Monty. They seemed to be very familiar with one another. They went on and on about how the developers of SAO were their new heroes because of their ability to introduce real tastebuds into the code. Jasper was holding a handful of nuts and explained that he could taste them as if they were real, but he wasn’t experiencing an allergic reaction like he normally would if he ate nuts in the real world. He was clearly very excited over the fact that he could eat foods he couldn’t usually eat. Monty told us about how he hates mushrooms, much like me, but his tastebuds in his SAO body didn’t reject them like they did in real life. It seemed as though everybody had the same tastebuds and immune system as each other. I told myself that I wouldn’t care if my aversion to mushrooms were gone in this world because I refused to eat them, even if the game told me I would like them.

We also learned that the world we were in was called Aincrad. An NPC, similar to the ones behind the carts, told us that she was an information guide whose only job was to give players basic information about the game and any other answers to questions they had. Apparently, Aincrad is a huge floating island with 100 different floors. Each floor would be unlocked when the previous floor was cleared by defeating the boss in the hidden dungeon. Each floor would become harder than the next. The entire game was supposed to be a team effort, but it wasn’t necessary to play in a team, although it does make it easier and is probably a lot more fun. I knew I’d be having tons of fun with my family.

The floors are stacked to make up the island. Each floor had its own cities and outdoor environments. Players could basically create their own life in Aincrad. People could create their own businesses in order to help them earn more of the in game currency called cor. Having a shop or home wasn’t necessary. Shops are more useful than a home, because shops earned cor. Homes were more of a luxury–something to show off the wealth of a player. There was no need for one, because the game isn’t real life. You could just log off and sleep in your own home. _Whoops. I meant to ask the NPC about why the logout button isn’t working yet._

Lincoln said he wanted to go exploring some more, so we set our sights back into the grassland. Perhaps the button not working was just a glitch and would be fixed soon, I thought.

We walked to the end of the grassland, where the forest began bordering the hills. It was a fairly long walk, too. The world of Aincrad would surely be enormous, but I looked forward to seeing all of it. After about an hour of walking around the land and pointing out different species that didn’t exist on Earth and all of the different flowers that smelled incredible, we stumbled across a lake.

“I wonder if there are any lake monsters!” Lincoln exclaimed.

My brows furrowed. “That sounds scary.”

Anya rolled her eyes in response to my words laced with fear. “Nothing is real here, remember? But before we go explore the depths of the monster filled lake, let’s add each other to our friends lists.”

I wanted to smack my head when I heard Anya mention the friends list. I had completely forgotten about that feature. I waved my left hand to signal the menu to open. I tapped my friends list, which then promptly asked me if I wanted to keep my user info private and only share my name and other information to those on my friends list. I clicked yes, thinking it was better safe than sorry to keep my name a secret. I was always careful when it came to sharing personal information online. Once the friends list was opened it showed a quick guide to how to add friends. I followed it, pointing my finger at Anya and noticed a small menu pop up in front of her, notifying her that she had a friend request. She accepted and proceeded to do the same, but with Lincoln. After we all had become friends, Lincoln immediately sprang forward and cannonballed into the lake.

The water splashed us, drenching our clothes. _Oh great, I even have to deal with wet clothes in this world._ A few moments of silence followed his descent into the water. The only noise came from the rippling water and the bubbles ascending to the surface. Lincoln’s head finally emerged from the water as he grasped for air and screamed over how cold the water was. We both laughed in response before following his lead and jumping into the water with him. It was definitely as cold as Lincoln was letting on, despite the warm and sunny weather outside.

We plugged our noises and dove into the water. It was murky and difficult to see through, but not enough to deter our need for exploration. Because pain didn’t exist in the game we could easily keep our eyes open without the dirty water affecting them. I could just barely see Lincoln pointing down at something below us. I lowered my head and noticed a big aquatic creature with a glowing orb at the end of an antenna. It looked like an angler fish, but a little more prehistoric and magical. It also looked like it could easily eat us and swallow us whole, which is exactly what prompted me to swim to the surface and towards the grass. Lincoln popped out of the water shortly after.

“Aw man, you’re no fun. We can totally take that thing if we try!” Lincoln whined.

I seriously doubted that considering we only managed to kill one squirrel on our journey through the grasslands. It was a complete accident, too. Anya accidentally threw her sword behind her when she was testing out some moved. When we turned around we saw the squirrel twitch, pixelate, and then shatter into a hundred pieces like glass before vanishing entirely. Anya still called that a successful kill and bragged on it the whole way to the lake. “I’m not a fan of dying, even if I respawn back at the plaza.” I whined. “And besides, we don’t know what the penalties are for dying yet, and I don’t want to lose the 200 cor we start out with as well as all the bread we have. Call me crazy, but I like to be careful.”

During our short conversation we completely forgot that Anya was still underwater.

“Do you think she did? Should we head back to the plaza?” Lincoln asked.

“I don’t know. We didn’t hear the same dying sound and animation that the squirrel had. Maybe she’s just grabbing seaweed or something.”

Lincoln cocked an eyebrow before replying. “Seaweed, Lexa? Really? Anya wouldn’t spend her first day in SAO playing gatherer. Also, this is a lake.”

“And yet we saw an angler fish in this lake,” I snorted.

“I bet she’s actually fighting the monster, because she isn’t the boring sister.”

“I’ll take that bet. I know Anya better than you, and she would not try and fight that thing on her own,” I said, confidently.

Lincoln nodded with a grin, clearly displaying that he felt sure of his bet. We waited in silence for a few moments just staring at the water and waiting for something to happen. She had been underwater for quite awhile now. Maybe Lincoln was right and she did die. I was just about to speak up again when Anya came splashing out of the water. However, she was not alone. Underneath her was a giant, brightly colored, orange fish.

“Woohoo!” Anya yelled out before splashing back in the water. I had never seen her act so cheerful before. It was kind of unsettling, really. A few more splashes later and Anya was launched into the air, screaming, before falling down onto the ground.

“Now who landed on her ass?” I commented with a look on my face that probably looked as smug as it felt.

“Shut up,” she groaned.

______

A few more hours of exploring and attempted kills passed. We were having an incredible amount of fun and so far the game had been everything that I wanted it to be, but even more. It was truly amazing how a game could be so real and yet feel so freeing at the same time.

“We should probably log out for a but. We’ve been playing for about 7 hours, and over 10 hours without eating probably isn’t good for our real bodies,” I stated.

Anya began to complain. “Why would I ever want to return to real life? I rode a giant fish a few hours ago! Nothing could be better than this.”

“Ha, ha,” Lincoln said. “Lexa’s right. We have all summer to play. Let’s just get off for a few hours. We can stretch our bodies and eat, and then we can get right back to playing.”

Anya reluctantly resigned and lowered her head in agreement. She raised her left hand to open her menu, immediately reaching for the logout button. She tapped it once, then twice, and then three times in a row. Each time, nothing happened. It was still faded out, signaling the player that the button wasn’t working. “Hey, we can’t log off,” Anya said with a worried look.

I opened my menu and eyed the lower button. “I just thought that maybe it was on purpose so new players could get through the beginning without signing off, but there was no tutorial that I’m aware of, so there would be no point for that. It’s possible it’s just a glitch. New games always have bugs, but you’d think after 7 hours they would have fixed it already or at least sent out some notification to all the players.

Lincoln had his menu open too, quickly pressing the button many times before closing it again. He pulled his bottom lip into his mouth with his eyes squinting in clear thought. “We should head back to the plaza again. Maybe the other players know what’s going on.”

We agreed and began walking back to the plaza we spawned in. I didn’t feel nervous. There was no reason to feel nervous. A game this big was getting a ton of attention and if the developers didn’t fix the bug quickly there would be thousands upon thousands of angry players and parents. The problem would be fixed soon. I’m sure Anya was more worried about when she would really be able to play the game. Lincoln was probably concerned about his health and not being able to log out before his body started eating at his fat and muscle due to hunger.

We reached the plaza and the atmosphere was completely different than it was when we were last here. The beautiful area that was once filled to the walls with excited players and loud chatter was now replaced with mouths leaking with uncertainty. I could see Jasper and Monty looking anxious while leaning against a wall to the side of us. Every player wanted to know the answer to the same question. Why couldn’t we log off?

Amidst the hushed questions surrounding SAO, a loud shattering of glass sounded throughout the plaza. Thousands of heads turned to meet the source. It was a player just outside of the plaza walls. The remnants of glass proved that before they disappeared. The whole plaza was quiet. Not a word was uttered for what felt like hours before someone shouted “Where did he respawn? Does anyone see him?” Nobody did.

A few other players responded by saying that perhaps the respawn point was somewhere else, but another player shut that idea down when she told them the NPC informed her that the plaza was the spawn and respawn point for new players and other players who hadn’t yet set a home or an inn as a respawn point.

Another player asked if lag was a possible cause of the guy not respawning, which seemed more plausible, but others agreed that the game was so advanced that lag shouldn’t be a problem for more than a minute.

I was beginning to feel extremely uneasy.

One person geniously yelled out for everyone to ask the NPC about the situation. Dozens of players verbally agreed and looked towards the person standing closest to the NPC. They turned and spoke.

“Uh, what’s-well, what’s going on?”

The NPC turned and looked at the player. “Please provide more sufficient detail in your question.”

The player spoke more confidently this time. “Why can’t we log off?”

“Information not available,” the NPC replied rather robotically.

“What happened to the player that died?” they asked, louder and more demanding of an answer.

“Information not available. Please stand by for more information,” the NPC responded with the same robotic way of speaking.

I felt Lincoln tap on my shoulder behind me. He inched closer until his head was adjacent to my ear. “What does she mean by ‘please stand by.’ What’s happening?” He whispered.

I glanced at him from the side and felt my eyebrows furrow. I’m sure my face was the definition of anxiety. I shook my head lightly. _What is happening?_

Suddenly, before I could even blink, hundreds of player began spawning in the plaza in the open spaces left between other players. They looked just as confused as everyone else. I knew that the people who weren’t hanging out in the plaza with the rest of us were probably just as confused by the looks on their faces. One of the players immediately started shouting, frantically trying to find her brother, Devin. Over the unintelligible screaming of the player I heard the word “respawn.” Devin must have also died, I thought. The girl was probably trying to find him, _but how would she know he didn’t respawn if she wasn’t at the plaza when it happened?_ Someone must have had the same question as me, because they were asking her about what she saw.

“D-Devin, my brother,” she was choking back her tears, “h-he just died, an-and when I checked my-my friends list it said…” the tears were flowing freely now. Her eyes and face were red from fear and sorrow.

“What did it say?” A guy in the background asked.

Through her sob she finally managed to finish her sentence, ‘It said-it said player n-no longer exists.”

She cried and cried, repeating variants of the same words. Players brought their hands over their mouths in clear shock, and I felt myself do the same. None of this made sense. _Why are people not respawning? Why did players just get transported to the plaza?_ That small pit of concern in my stomach was now replaced with a gigantic dark abyss of pure stress and fear.

A few minutes of crying and gasps of various players later, and a face was projected in the sky. Players all around turned to point their attention to the floating head. It was Nia Azgeda, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear. I could see the crowd now had eyes filled with hope. Maybe our questions were finally going to be answered. Maybe now no one would have to worry. Everything would be okay. Everything was going to be fine.

“Greetings, players!” Nia said, cheerfully. Cheerful was good. Cheerful is good news. “Welcome to Sword Art Online! This work is my pride and joy, and I do hope you’re all enjoying your time here so far.”

“Tell us what’s happening here! Why can’t we logout?” A man shouted.

“I have to pick up my kids in two hours!” A woman exclaimed.

“Now, now,” Nia spoke again, successfully hushing the players. “I have the answers to all of your questions. I am completely aware of all the concerns you have, and I am here to tell you all to remain calm. Everything will be sorted out in due time. Until then, you’ll just need to hang tight and play the game.”

“Is it a glitch? How long can we expect the inability to log off to remain?” Another player shouted from the back.

Nia smiled. This smile wasn’t cheerful. It was sadistic. “Well, I do apologize. I can’t actually answer that question. You see, it isn’t up to me when you are allowed to return to the real world. That’s up to you.” Her smile widened to a point where it looked like it hurt. “Until you beat Sword Art Online, Aincrad will remain as your new home.”

When those words reached the ears of the crows, it roared. The shouts and screams of the players filled the plaza. I felt the same agony I was sure everyone else was feeling.

Nia spoke louder to be heard over the screams. “Be quiet while I give you all the information. I’m very busy at the moment. The only way to return to the real world is to beat the last boss on the 100th floor of Aincrad. Once the final boss is slain, you’ll all be logged off immediately and returned back to your friends and families. I must warn you, however, the game only gets harder as it goes on. In fact, it’s even more difficult right now. Your pain meters have been increased. Pain is now felt at the real level you would feel in your organic bodies. I would advise being careful out there in combat. A stab in the heart can sure hurt,” Nia said with a straight face. Her eyes opened wide, like she surprised herself. “Oh, yes! Of course. It can even be fatal.”

Just then, all the eyes in the plaza widened too, as if every person in Aincrad just understood the same tragic fact simultaneously. We did.

“When you die in Sword Art Online, you die in real life. The moment you let your health drop to 0, an electrical current surges into your head, frying your brain and killing you instantly,” Nia informed with a cold, icy heart. “And if you don’t believe me, here are some screenshots and images from around the world.”

Images flashed across the sky. There were different articles detailing the deaths of players who had fried brains. News reports of people dying while wearing the NerveGear, and mourning families crying on camera.

Nia spoke over the flashing images. “And not only though, but if your frightened friends and family try to forcefully log you out by unplugging the machine, the same exact current will fry your brain immediately. The only way out of the game alive is to beat it. So I would get started. Have fun, citizens of Aincrad. Good luck.”

Nia’s face in the sky was removed and replaced with the white clouds and blue sky that were beautiful and displayed a sense of comfort and content that nobody in the plaza was currently feeling.

Everybody around me began rioting, screaming and pleading for NIa to come back and tell them everything she said was a joke. They wanted for her to come back and say nothing was real and nobody would actually die in here. That the previous deaths were stages and that this was a cruel joke or a nightmare we would all wake up from. She didn’t come back.

Anya looked like she wanted to cry. It was the first time I had ever really seen her this way. Completely and utterly broken. Lincoln was putting on a front, pretending that the news didn’t just crush his entire being.

Me? I didn’t know what to think. I could hardly even process the information I was just fed. I stood there, mouth agape with eyes fighting back tears.

Everything was not going to be fine.


	3. New Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa tries to adjust to her new life in SAO. She's not very happy, but a new friends makes things better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried my best to keep everything in past tense, but sometimes things slip, so I'm sorry if there are mistakes! I'll try harder next time. 
> 
> Also, sorry for typos and stuff.

September 15, 2016

Several red and silver fish swam around in the riverbed. The water was clear with a green tint to it. A rather large fish swam over the top of my still, bare feet in the water. I gripped the spear tighter in my hand and focused on the large fish. Its scales began glowing as the dirt below it grew increasingly fuzzier. I waited a couple more seconds before taking a deep breath and threw the spear, creating a loud splash that sent the water flying. The ripples in the water settled and I saw the spear sticking into the dirt, alone. I turned my head to the right and saw the same fish swimming down the stream. _Damn it._ My focus was drawn away from the fish when a familiar voice spoke behind me.

“You know you’re supposed to actually hit the target,” Lincoln teased.

“Oh, really? I had no idea,” I smiled and rolled my eyes in response. “Thank you so much for the heads up.”

He rolled his eyes back at me. “When you’re done playing around, get your ass to the store. Anya needs help.”

“Why do I have to help? Weren’t you just with her? Why didn’t you stay and help?” I groaned.

“God you have a lot of questions,” he chuckled as he walked to the water to pull the spear out of the water. “I have to go find some more supplies. We’re running low on iron and beef,” Lincoln answered before throwing the spear back towards the water, successfully stabbing a fish dead.

I felt my eyes widened. “How are you so good at that? I swear I’m the worst at catching fish. They’re just too damn slippery.”

“I’ve got skilled,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “Here. Now eat this and go help Anya. I’ll be back before night.” He threw the fish at me, which I did catch, but not before I stumbled a bit and almost dropped it onto the dirt.

“Why don’t you just bring her some fish? They’re a lot easier to find and they don’t require going to a different floor.”

“Well then the store wouldn’t be called ‘Steaks and Stakes’ now, would it?” He grinned.

“That doesn’t even make sense. We sell weapons, not tent parts.”

“I don’t question it anymore,” he laughed. “It brings in the money. Now go. Eat. See you later.” He walked back off towards the main town on the floor.

A little over a month after we were trapped inside SAO, Anya opened a shop in the town as a way of earning money. The aftershock of learning the horrible news on that first day pushed her into wanting to build us a life here since nobody knew how long we’d be stuck her. We went gathering for items one day, collecting all of the beef and metal we could. Anya thought the idea of having a place to buy different forms of cooked beef and weapons would be a good combination. Once we had enough inventory to start our store we needed to find the perfect spot to set up shop. It wasn’t until floor 17 opened up that we decided to settle down there. Floor 17 was perfect. The town was beautiful and it had tons of open plots and inns, and the land outside of the town was beautiful as well. We didn’t have to walk more than 20 minutes to reach the tent we set up on the edge of the river. When we saw the spot, we knew it was home. Anya promised she would buy us a house to share once we earned enough cor. Unfortunately though, that was going to take a very long time. A studio style home costs 1 million cor, and a normal house with 3 bedrooms cost 3 million. We only had 78 thousand cor to our name. Until we could earn enough, the tent by the river was going to remain our home.

It’s not really safe to live outside of safe zones. Safe zones were areas where players’ health could not drop below 1, which meant they couldn’t die. All towns were safe zones, so living outside of the town wasn’t ideal, but we couldn’t afford to stay at the inn every day so we took our chances at living outside the safe zone. Fortunately tents are mini safe zones. Nobody inside the tent could die, and living pretty close to a safe zone adds a little more protection than if we weren’t by one.

The three of us decided to stay on floor 17 and create a life here instead of fight in dungeons, because there was no use to going through everything in SAO to just die before we could even get free. We don’t even leave the floor unless we need to gather more supplies on floor 8, which has the most cows we’ve seen on a floor thus far. Actually, I don’t even leave the floor at all anymore. All I do is cook the beef at the store.

I was, by far, the worst fighter out of the three of us, and that wasn't even my fault. I would have loved to learn to fight, but Anya demanded me to stay put and never leave the town or the tent. I knew she was just worried about me, but sometimes I felt suffocated being forced to stay there. My mind would often ponder the idea of leaving and joining the other players fighting for their freedom.

Once Nia Azgeda revealed our fate, other players immediately sprung into action and began clearing floors like a forest fire. In the first week, 5 floors were cleared. It had been three months inside and they were currently on floor 25 searching for the dungeon. Early on everyone had a great attitude. We thought we’d be free in no time. The floors were seemingly easy, and the only players who had died were those who got disconnected in the real world. We had high hopes up until recently. A few days ago the dungeon was twice as hard as the previous one. The group cleared it, but not without 4 casualties. Ever since that happened, the dungeons have become increasingly more difficult. Some people hypothesize that much later floors could take up to a whole month to clear.

The idea of a floor taking an entire month to clear created conflicting feelings inside of me. I knew that I could do something. I knew I could join the fight and help out. I _wanted_ to, but my current position of being trapped on floor 17 on top of being trapped in SAO kept me from fighting. I really wanted to fight, but Anya would never let me leave.

I sighed, putting the fish in my inventory, opting out of eating that morning, and closed my tent. My legs twisted and took me back towards the town.

During these walks into town, I often thought about life in SAO. It wasn’t bad. Not really, at least. My body felt great all the time. I didn’t have school work. I could do incredible things, even if I was bad at them because of my lack of freedom to practice due to Anya. And that was another thing. I had my best friends, my family, right there with me all the time. As much as I wanted to leave, I knew Anya keeping me there wasn’t the only reason why I couldn’t leave. I knew that Anya and Lincoln would try and follow me, risking their own lives in pursuit of keeping me safe. It wouldn’t even work to sneak out and leave them without telling them, because the idea of worrying my family by disappearing was enough to keep me on the floor.

But despite my understanding of the situation, I still found myself thinking about leaving all the time. I wouldn’t admit it to Anya or Lincoln, but sometimes I even dreamt of clearing the game. I would dream about walking through the portal to the 100th floor and performing the final jab to the monster’s gut that clears the game. I would dream of the happy faces and the ones crying from joy. I would dream of freeing everybody. I wanted to do something. I really did.

But I couldn’t.

I arrived at the town to find Anya frantically trying to cook the steaks while pounding metal on an anvil while an older man yelled at her for taking too long. He was long gone by the time I stepped in front of the shop. Anya was grunting and swearing angrily.

“Damn old men and their superiority complexes,” Anya grumbled.

“Hey! No bad mouthing our customers,” I chuckled. “You want to buy a house one day, then you need to keep our business going.”

“What do you mean _I_ need to keep our business going? I do most of the work here! Thanks for finally showing up though.”

I hummed my response before I hopped behind the counter. I tapped on the chest below the grill and a menu displaying the contents inside appeared. Three pieces of beef were selected and materialized on the cutting board in front of me. I took the cooking knife out of my inventory and proceeded to tap each piece of meat consecutively. The excess fat from each steak was automatically trimmed of, lying in a pile on the corner of the board. The now cut steaks were laid on top of the grill.

I didn’t mind cooking. It was extremely easy in SAO, which actually made it boring sometimes. All you needed was basic tools, food, and a learned recipe to cook a decent meal. I originally made a steak rubbed with common spices until Lincoln gifted me a recipe for “Perfectly Grilled Steak” that he received as a rare drop from a cow. The recipe gives the player the skill to make that dish. Nobody else could make it unless they knew the recipe, which is why our store was doing as well as it did. The steak from the recipe filled players up and granted more health than any other steak. I did the prep work for the steaks at night and then cooked them throughout the day.

It really was easy and I really didn’t mind it, but I did mind how rushed I felt when I had to cook a hundred steaks in a short amount of time. It was rare for people to come and buy one steak from our store. When people shopped for food it was typically to stock up. Food didn't go bad in SAO, so players bought food in bulk and only came back to stock up again. So when I had 12 cooked steaks and somebody came up asking for 60, I’d go into overdrive and I'd feel exhausted by the end of the day. Who knew trying to flip steaks quickly and replacing cooked meat with raw meat on the grill in record time could be so tiresome?  

And as much as I didn’t mind working at the store, I really didn’t want to, but I could never quit. The store meant so much to Anya. She desperately wanted to take care of us. Me especially. How could I have lived with myself if I stopped working at the place that Anya worked so hard at to try and provide for us?

Working for the next 5 hours was very stressful. A group of people fighting on the front lines came and asked to buy hundreds of steaks and even asked Anya to repair their weapons. Apparently they knew where the 25th floor dungeon was and were stocking up for the fight. They all seemed so pumped to be working towards freedom despite the very real possibility of death and the low hopes that had been going around. I wanted to badly to ask if I could tag along and watch, but of course I didn’t.

After what felt like days of flipping meat and tapping my knife on the cutting board, they day was finally over. Anya was putting things back into her inventory. Lincoln dropped by an hour before we closed up to drop off more iron and beef. The amount he brought would last us a week.

“Start prepping the steak for tomorrow. I’m about to head back to the tent once I count how much cor we made today,” Anya said.

Nodding, I began to remove the spices from my inventory along with the appropriate amount of meat. I tapped each spice and cut of meat, and within minutes the prep work for the night was done. It really was easy.

When I finished, Anya had already left back to the tents. My stomach grumbled and I knew I probably should have eaten something earlier, like the fish I ignored, but I shrugged and walked to the town bar that was not so cleverly named “Bar 17”. The scruffy looking man at the bar counter turned when I sat on the stool in front of him. “What can I get ya?” He said.

“Got any turkey legs?” I replied.

He nodded. “You a townsperson or a soldier?” he said.

“What?” I replied, eyebrows furrowed.

He laughed, “You know, do you live like a citizen or do you fight?”

“Oh. I just live here. Nothing special?”

“You scared to fight?”

I wasn’t sure why, but I immediately felt attacked by the question. “No,” I said, harsher than I meant to. “Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I’m afraid to risk my life.”

“Whoa!” He said, a voice octave higher with his hands in front of him in a defensive position. “Not what I mean. It’s just that I actually am.” He lips pressed together in a tight smile. “I joined a guild for a month. Went out and fought in dungeons every day.” He let out a breath of a laugh and shook his head. “I wanted to be brave and bring everybody back to their families. I thought I could do it.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to assume. What changed.”

“I was in the boss room of floor 23. Found myself face to face with the boss. Literally. My face was directly in front of it. Up until this point I made sure I never actually got in front of an enemy like that. I would only ever serve as backup. I’d stab things from behind, but I would never engage anything on my own,” his face fell. “Once I stared into the enemy’s eyes, I knew I was a goner. All the fear I had pushed down came pouring out at once. My buddy, Mark, he was screaming. Calling out to me. I could barely sense anything other than the monster right in front of me. I was a deer in the headlights. When I finally did understand what was happening, I ran. I ran as fast as I could out of that room. It wasn’t until the next day that I learned from the rest of my team that Mark was being held in its hands. He was begging for me to help him,” The bartender swallowed loudly. “He died and it was all my fault. The rest is history. Now I’m here wallowing in my own self-pity.”

“That’s awful,” I whispered.

“Yeah, well. It happened. I shouldn’t have fought. I knew I wasn’t really cut out for it.” He smiled, tapping the counter lightly with his hands before turning around and grabbing my order from the kitchen. He placed it in front of me before turning to speak again. “So what about you? You’re not scared. Why aren’t you fighting?”

I sighed, picking up the turkey leg and biting into it. It was smoky and salty and much better than any turkey I had in the real world. “I can’t leave my family behind. I don’t know if you’ve seen them before. We work at the store nearby called ‘Steaks and Stakes.’”

“Oh, yeah! I’ve seen you guys before. The other woman who works there seems kind of scary.”

“Yeah, that’s my sister,” I laughed. “She’s not that scary when you get to know her. She cares about me so much. She’s basically my mother here. She doesn’t ever let me fight and I can’t leave the floor. She’s afraid of me dying, which I understand. Sometimes I hate sitting around and doing nothing. Who knows though, I might not have it in me either. I could come back to floor 17 after a traumatizing event and work at the store the rest of my time here.”

“You’re right. That could happen. I’m a living example,” he chuckled. “I don’t know that. I told you my story and you still kind of want to fight. Seems like you might be cut out for it.”

“Maybe. Doesn’t matter though. I can’t leave. I can’t do that to my family. I care about them too much to worry them like that.”

Wanting to change the subject, I asked him if he had any good stories to share–ones that didn’t end up with death and pity. He told me of the rumored hot spring on floor 56. Nobody had seen it, of course. We were only on floor 25, but NPCs scattered around the different floors had been giving players information that lead everyone to believe there could be a huge, beautiful hot spring on that floor.

A guild came to that conclusion after studying the artificial history of Aincrad. NPCs had their own language called trigedasleng. They didn’t speak it much, but some of their menus and sentences were littered with a word or two at a time of trigedasleng. After a little research, the guild figured out that the vials of crystal clear water than an NPC was selling (at quite a high price) were translated into english as being “Podu Hot Water”, which didn’t mean much until they asked the information NPC from spawn what Podu meant. It turned out that Podu was a small town on floor 56.

The bartender, who I later discovered was named Daniel, said he looked forward to making it to Podu one day to live his life relaxing in the spring until he was freed. I decided I would visit him there someday too.

At that point I realized it was getting pretty late. I thanked Daniel for his company and the meal and made my way back to our tents. When I arrived, I was greeted by a smiling Anya and Lincoln as they sat in front of the fire.

“Hey cousin! What kept you out so late?” Lincoln asked, cheerfully.

I wasn’t necessarily ready to tell my family about my conversation with Daniel. I wasn’t ready to reveal my true feelings towards our situation. Instead, I smiled back at them and replied with a simple “Just wanted to prepare more steaks than usual for tomorrow. We went through a lot today.”

“That’s what I like to hear! My baby sister–working hard or her family!” Anya shouted happily, grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me into a close side hug. I nearly crashed into the ground from the force.

November 20th, 2016

Two months had passed since I first met Daniel at the bar that night. Nothing very exciting had happened since. I still worked tirelessly at the store with Anya and Lincoln. I still stucked at catching fish, and I still secretly wanted to leave floor 17. It was the same routine every day. I would wake up, fail miserably at catching breakfast, would embarrassingly have to get Lincoln to feed me, and then I would go to work for the rest of the day. Occasionally I would spice things up by going to the bar to get a bite to eat and make conversation with Daniel. Life really was the exact same as it was two months earlier.

“Hey, Lexa!”

Oh yeah, except for that.

A girl with beautifully dark skin and long dark hair to match skipped through the crowd in town, pushing past any player who get in her way. She was always pretty assertive.

“Oh hey, Costia,” I replied.

I met Costia a little over a month ago at the bar when Daniel introduced us. Costia moved to floor 17 when she got tired of living at Spawn. Spawn was pretty much the place to live if you had no family or friends and were pretty young. Lots of children who lost their parents lived there. It was really horrifying to think about. A young kid, a person who couldn’t even begin to fathom what the heck was happening, would be orphaned for the rest of their life because of something as harmless as a video game. A young child whose parent just wanted to experience a fun video game with them was all of a sudden greeted by homelessness, poverty, and the chronic feeling of loneliness.

May players, mostly older adults who were separated from their families by SAO, volunteered to stay behind at Spawn to take care of the children who didn’t have a home or family anymore. Costia stayed behind for awhile. She was about to start her freshman year of college when she first entered Aincrad. None of her friends or family members wanted to play, so she was all alone. She might have technically been an adult, but Costia didn’t know what it was like to be completely alone like that, so she stayed on the first floor to help take care of the younger kids while to older adults took care of her. She was happy there for awhile, but ultimately felt like she needed to put herself out there more, so she traveled to each floor until she stumbled into the bar on floor 17 where she met Daniel. She told him all about herself, which is why Daniel introduced me to Costia. He thought her and I would have a lot in common, seeing as I wanted to put myself out there too.

And he was right. We hit it off immediately and had become pretty good friends. Costia worked at the local inn. The owners let her live there in exchange for her work. It ended up working out for the best for her, because she didn’t need to make a lot of money. She just needed to earn enough for her essential needs, which she gets by making tips at the inn.

Costia smiled, “What are you doing sitting on a bench in the middle of town? Shouldn’t you be working?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m just taking a break. It’s been pretty slow today. I have enough meat cooked for the next few customers, so I’ll just wait to go back to work when we finally get some,” I replied. “What are you doing?”

“I was actually going to go fishing for a bit. Sue, one of the owners of the inn, asked me to get some for her. She’s going to add a new service to bring in more business by offering complimentary dinner to her residents. She’s already had her husband hang signs on all of the other main town portals and she asked me to go fishing for a few hours.”

“Oh, okay,” I said.

I could tell Costia was concerned by my plain answer because of the pout I received. “Something wrong?”

I pondered her question for a moment before I replied, “Are you any good at fishing?”

“I’m decent,” she giggled. “Why?”

“Can I come with? I really suck at it and I want to be able to catch my own damn food for once,” I rushed out.

“Sure, but shouldn’t you stay in case you get a customer?”

I looked towards the store and saw that Anya was sitting with her legs propped up on the counter while she read a newspaper with the words “Floor 37 Cleared” on it. “Nah,” I began, “let’s go.”

The two of us made casual conversation as we walked towards the river near our tents. I assumed we would be fishing there until Costia walked through the river in pursuit of the river deeper into the forest.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“To the river. It’s only about a mile into the forest. It had different and rarer fish than this one,” Costia replied coolly as she continued on her path.

“Oh, um. Yeah, okay,” I followed behind her, walking much slower than she was.

She must had recognized by hesitation, because stopped walking and turned around just a few moments later. “It’s about Anya, isn’t it?”

I didn’t reply. I continued my slow walk.

“You don’t have to come with me. I know that Anya doesn’t want you going anywhere but the camp and tow-,” I cut her off.

“No. It’s fine. It’s not that far and Anya is just overprotective. Let’s go.”

Costia nodded and continued forward. It wasn’t long until we could hear the moving rapids of the river, and once we saw the foamy waters we removed our spears from our inventories.

Fishing rods did exist in SAO, but they were unbelievably slow and weren’t very useful in such shallow waters. Spears were much easier to use.

“Okay!” Costia said with a cheerful smile and a clap of her hands. “Show me what you got.”

I gulped, fully ready to be embarrassed by my poor fishing skills. I focused on a fish moving through the water and tightening my grip on my spear. When I threw it, I expected it to splash in the water a good distance away from my target, and it did exactly that. “Ugh,” I groaned. “I don’t even think you can help me. I have tried catching fish for months and I just can’t get the hang of it.”

Costia laughed. “Well I can tell you right now that you are throwing it all wrong and you stand way too far away. Your focus won’t be as accurate when you’re standing that far. Stand a little closer and only use one hand on the spear.”

“But I feel like I can’t direct the spear very well with just one hand. My arm shakes more without the added support.”

“Just trust me. Your arms want to throw it in conflicting directions when you use two. Us one, focus, stand closer, and throw with your shoulder instead of your nice biceps.”

I rolled my eyes but I could still feel heat reach my face from her compliment. I did as I was told and threw the spear again and it landed much closer to the fish this time.

“Nice! You didn’t get one, but see how much closer you were? Try again!”

I tried again, and again, and again. I failed each time, but I was also getting a lot closer than I usually did. After a few minutes of constantly trying and retrying, I finally managed to hit a fish. Well, not exactly. I hit the exact spot a fish was hanging out in, but ti managed to swim away before my spear even struck the water. I called it a success anyway.

I did manage to catch a fish later though, and by the end of our training session, I had caught 9 fish all on my own. I was feeling rather proud of myself. Costia caught 30 fish, but that was besides the point. I finally felt a sense of freedom.

Once Costia felt like she had enough fish, she put away her spear and told me to wrap it up as well while calling me “The Fishing Master”. I rolled my eyes as a response.

The sun was beginning to set, but it was still bright enough to see through the forest. We walked through the trees, careful not to trip over any roots, quietly before Costia broke the silence by asking a question.

“So… have you thought any more about leaving?”

I paused. I didn’t expect Costia to bring that up and I didn’t know why she did. We never talked about it apart from the first night we met. I was about to respond when Costia cut me off before I could.

“I’m just asking because,” she paused for a moment, likely to gather her thoughts. “Because you haven’t mentioned it in a long time. When we first met you wouldn't stop talking about it, but now you seem like it’s not ever on your mind.”

“I just try not to think about it,” I sighed. “Of course I wanted to leave, but Anya wouldn’t let me and I don’t want to worry her.”

Costia seemed to accept my answer with a single nod of her head.

We continued walking in complete silence until we reached the camp. Anya was clearly waiting for us, her angry stance being a complete giveaway of her current emotion and the uncomfortable expression on Lincoln’s face confirming that I was definitely about to be scolded.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Costia said, reaching out to touch my shoulder before saying goodbye to Anya and Lincoln too. Once Costia was out of hearing range, Anya spoke loudly.

“What were you thinking? You went into the forest? You could have gotten killed!” she yelled.

“Relax, Anya. Nothing happened to me. There wasn’t anything but fish out there.”

“That’s not the point. I don’t care what was out there, I care what _could_ have been out there.”

“Anya, it’s okay. She’s fine. I’m sure she knows we were worried,” Lincoln intrjected.

“Does she?” Anya barked back. “Because I don’t think she does. The least she could have done was let me know where she was going.”

“You wouldn’t have let me go,” I replied. My own anger was beginning to boil.

“You don’t know that because you didn’t ask.”

“I do know that. I remember perfectly well the time you told me to never leave the town or camp. I know you wouldn’t have let me go into the forest because you’re so damn adamant about keeping me as a damn prisoner here!” I stomped my foot childishly.

Anya’s face softened instantly, the anger leaving her eyes. “I didn’t know you felt that way,” Anya dropped her head to look at the ground.

“Well, I do,” I responded.

She raised her head again. I met her eyes, hoping to convey how serious I was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to make you feel trapped. I just get scared that I’ll lose you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me so much. I’m just a year younger than you."

“Almost two, actually. But I know it’s not your fault that our mother decided to have a kid so soon after having me,” she laughed.

The atmosphere surrounding us had changed. It wasn’t negative anymore. Now it was just somber with the weighted feeling of Anya’s fears around us.

“I know you worry about me and I love that you do, but I promise you that I’m careful. If I have to live here I want to at least feel like I can make my own decisions.”

Anya gave me a weak smile, “Okay. I can try to stop controlling you so much. Just please be careful and let me know if you’re going somewhere new so that I don’t freak out when you’re gone, or so I can come and rescue you if you aren’t back before night. Oh! And you have to be back before night. Unless you’re at the town. That’s fine then.”

I was the one to laugh this time. “Okay,” I breathed out. “Sounds fair.”

With the drama finally over, I felt a lot more free than I did earlier that day. The three of us talked and laughed over a meal before we each decided to head into our tents to sleep the night away.

***

A few hours after we decided to turn in for the night, I found myself unable to do just that and instead stared at the crease in the top of my tent, all while thinking about the events that had transpired just hours before.

It was the first time I had ever gone somewhere new since we moved to floor 17, and even though it was only a mile into the forest that was next to our camp, it made me feel alive. I felt a rush of excitement just thinking about it. I finally felt like I could be in control of my life inside of SAO. I felt like I had the ability to do anything. And because of what? Because I finally decided to take control of my own decisions and stuck my foot into a whole new, but completely familiar, territory?

I imagined how I would feel if my decisions took me into a whole new life.

***

In the days since Anya gave me her blessing to spread my wings, I had partaken in numerous new adventures. They all, however, had taken place on floor 17. I still had yet to leave, but I did leave the safety of the town and camp on many occasions.

Costia took me around the floor a lot. She showed me the mountainous area that was covered with goats and creatures alike. We made that our official combat grounds. We would head out into the mountains and fight goats, both for fun and to collect meat. I even found out that I was actually pretty good at fighting. It was rough at the start, but I quickly learned how my body moved in the game and I was now able to slay a goat with no problem.

I had killed so many goats within a few days time that I even got another rare recipe drop for lamb stew. I made it for Costia on top of one of the mountains to celebrate.

But by far the most exciting adventure I had gone on was the one we did one day earlier. We woke up right before dawn, just as we planned, and began our long trek to the floor 17 dungeon.

It wasn’t dangerous to go to a cleared dungeon. Once the boss was defeated inside, the dungeon was officially abandoned by all enemies, leaving the entire area completely empty. And _god_ was it exhilarating just setting foot into a dungeon. The walls were brightly colored with blue flames lighting the halls. It was truly beautiful.

And it was cleared for goodness sakes, but that didn’t stop me from feeling like I was stepping into a brand new dungeon, ready to clear it for the first time. I imagined myself as a member of the front lines about to tackle a dungeon and move the group forward onto a new floor, inching us closer to freedom with every step. I felt useful for once.

Which, I guess is what lead me to the moment that changed my life forever. I stood right in front of Anya, Lincoln, and Costia, who were eating lunch against a wall in the town, feeling more ready than ever to say what had been on my mind since I was first trapped inside of Aincrad.

“I’m leaving,” I stated.

Three pairs of eyes immediately rose to meet mine. Anya was the first to speak.

“Where are you going? Make sure you’re home by dark,” she said without giving my words another thought. Anya was getting more comfortable with myself leaving and exploring the floor, but that wasn’t what I meant. Not even close.

“No. I’m leaving floor 17. For good,” I replied, standing firmly on the ground with confidence.

Anya rose from the ground immediately. “What?, she said, shocked.

“I’m leaving floor 17. I can’t stand feeling useless anymore. I’ve put up with it long enough. I need to do this. So please, let me go,” I said, making sure that my voice never wavered.

Anya wasn’t angry like I thought she would be. Instead, she just looked worried. Sad, even. “Where are you going to? What are you even going to do? Your life is here. Your family, your friends, they are here. What will you do anywhere else?” I could see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. I felt them form in mine, too.

“I’m going to clear the game.”

“No. You can’t. That’s too dangerous, Lexa,” her tears were flowing freely then.

I shifted my gaze towards Lincoln. He was looking back at m with understanding, but I could tell he was fighting tears as well. He stood up and put both of her arms on Anya’s shoulders. “Anya, look at me.” She did. “You can’t keep her here. If this is what she’s decided she wants to do, then we can’t stop her. We both know that. Lexa is way too stubborn,” he laughed quietly. Sniffling, he continued to speak, “If you forbid her to go then the last thing you’ll have from her before she goes is resentment, and you don’t want that. Neither of you do.”

Anya nodded while wiping the tears from her eyes. Her eyes met mine again. “Um, w-when are you leaving?”

The tears that threatened to fall did just that. “Now,” I whispered.

Anya covered her mouth with her hand and her eyes shut tightly as she tried to hold back a full on sob. After a long minute of labored breathing, Anya managed to say something back. “Are you sure?”

I silently nodded. Just seconds after my confirmation, I was enveloped in an extremely tight hug from Anya, Lincoln, and even Costia. The hug seemed to last forever, and I kind of wished it would, but it eventually ended, and through all of the crying and forced smiles, we managed to say our goodbyes.

I began to walk about, but before I could, Anya grabbed me by the hand and forced me to turn back around.

“Stay alive,” she said.

“I will.” It was a promise.

I turned back around and walked towards the floor portal. I wasn’t going to lie in that moment, it was probably the saddest moment of my life thus far. I wanted so badly to turn back around to tell them I was going to stay, that I would never leave them, but I knew that I needed and wanted to leave. I needed to be worth something in the world.

I was almost at the far end of the town, which was where the portal to the other floors was located. I was in the middle of thinking about all of the adventures and hards times that were waiting for me on the other side when I heard my name being called out behind me.

“Hey, Lexa! Wait!” It was Costia running to me.

 “Costia? What is it?” I questioned her.

“I’m coming with you,” she smiled.

“Are you sure? It’s going to be dangerous.”

“I’m sure. I can’t leave my adventuring partner to go on adventures lone. Plus, I would really miss your cooking,” her smile grew wide as she lightly punched me on the shoulder.

I smiled back at her. “Okay, partner. Let’s go.”

I reached for Costia’s hand, which she gladly accepted. We turned our attention to the portal in front of us before taking a step forward to start our journey to freedom.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story will have a lot of time jumps in it. Especially before Clarke comes into the story. It'll take a little bit, but once Clarke is here the story will slow down a little bit because much of this story is about their relationship growing in a very slow burnish way. 
> 
> Also Costia will die. Soon. Very soon. I hope you all don't care for her that much. I'm basically just using her to push the plot where I want it to go. Anyways, thanks for reading! 
> 
> Next time: Lexa and Costia join a guild.


	4. Costia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa and Costia join a guild and something goes wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I did a much better job editing this time but there are probably still some errors. Sorry! My eyes don't catch everything.
> 
> EDIT: Reposting because of some weird formatting problems.

December 20th, 2016

The breeze felt exceptionally good on this day. The grass was greener, the sky was bluer, and the sun was brighter. Of course, that wasn’t true, but it sure did feel that way at the time. Everything felt more beautiful because it was going to be a good day.

One month prior, Costia and I went through the portal to the 18th floor, officially beginning our escapades together. I felt a huge rush the moment I opened my eyes to a brand new town. We thought about continuing on through the portals until we made it to the then-current floor of 39, but Costia quickly stopped me, informing that it would probably be best for us to begin training on each floor to gradually increase our levels and skill. It was smart because the very first hours of training were brutal.

Every floor had its own skill level and power level. Floor 1 had the easiest monsters with the lowest amount of skill required to slay them. Those levels increased with every floor number. Costia and I had only just gotten used to fighting on floor 17, so jumping right into the deep end of floor 39 would have proven disastrous.

Training turned out to be very different than I had originally expected. It was nowhere close to how it was when we were killing peaceful creatures on the mountains for fun. It was much more intense and actually required the use of intelligence, a good reaction time, and greater strength. Peaceful creatures didn’t fight back. They would just run away from you or would die if they were especially weak. Hostile enemies would come and attack you whether you’d initiated combat or not, and although some were weak and died easily, most hostile enemies took more effort and energy to defeat.

The first enemy that I fought on floor 18 was a strange looking humanoid creature with grey skin, grey fur, claws, and the face of a bat that was called a Greemus. It probably would have been better to start training against hostile mobs on a lower floor, like floor 10. I would even go as far to say floor 2, which was the first floor that had hostile creatures inhabiting the caves and forests. The first floor was entirely peaceful aside from the dungeon. However, forcing yourself to fight creatures that were stronger than you was the best way to gain strength and experience. It was just like working out, I thought because nobody gained ample muscle by lifting 1lb weights exclusively or by walking just 10 measly minutes every day. You had to push yourself to get better, and that’s exactly what we were doing. We were, without a doubt, pushing ourselves.

The fight with the Greemus started out with myself feeling extremely confident and ended with me feeling like I had narrowly avoided death, even though I wasn’t really that close to dying. I still had a third of my health after killing it, but it felt as though I was just a scratch away from shattering into pixels on the dirt. I targeted the Greemus and lunged forward with my sword pointed behind me waiting for the opportunity to strike. The Greemus noticed my presence early on and was able to jump backward, causing my feet to skid into the mud. It took the opportunity to charge back at me, its claws swiping frantically at the space between us in hopes of making contact. They did. I was scratched from head to toe and god did it hurt. It felt like and sharp knife dipped in alcohol had been slashed across my skin over and over again, spilling blood that would without a doubt have stained her clothing if it was real life. The pain was real, but our bodies weren’t.

I screamed in pain with a mouth full of mud just below the enemy until the pain became manageable. That was when I gripped my sword tightly again and sent the sharp tip directly into the Greemus’ stomach, causing it to screech into the sky and stumble backward. My feet were planted firmly on the ground once more while I dissected my situation. The Greemus was too blinded by the pain to pay any attention to me, so I reacted. I ran forward once again, this time not giving the Greemus the chance to retaliate by jumping high in the air and pointing my sword straight down, aimed at its’ head. It was very reminiscent of my first attempt at fighting. The last time I tried this move the boat walked lazily away and I embarrassingly crashed onto the ground. This time was going to be different, I thought, and it was. I managed to land the attack with a plunge of my sword into its head and my feet standing on the shoulders. It screeched in pain once again and fell over. I pulled my sword out, still standing on top of the enemy, and proceeded to swing the sword back, kind of like doing a one handed golf swing, and slashed its throat, finally putting it out of its misery.

Once I composed myself from the brief interaction between myself and the Greemus, I took a look at Costia, who was cheering and jumping with excitement. She told me that I looked calm and cool, which I replied by revealing that I was scared out of my wits, but had never felt more alive. We considered moving down to a lower floor since just one attack by the Greemus caused me to lose two-thirds of my health, which meant that just one more attack could have killed me, but we ultimately decided that we could handle it. Getting better armor was a top priority.

In SAO, players leveled up like they normally would in other video games, but it was a little more complicated than that. It was all based on your skill level and how much experience you had in fighting. Enemy levels were based on the floor level and location. Dungeons held the strongest small enemies on the floor with the dungeon boss being the strongest enemy in the dungeon, but they weren’t the strongest enemy on the floor. Not always, at least. There were small enemies scattered everywhere on every floor, but there were also bosses that existed outside of dungeons. They were glorious creatures that could only be compared to a god. They were enormous in size and their strength couldn’t be matched. Anybody would be a fool to fight them as surely they would meet their end in a second. There were only 3 of those bosses that were known to exist in all of the currently open floors of Aincrad. On floor 11 resided a snake, a cobra, at the bottom of a ravine. Its length was of 4 school buses and it had fangs that were each 5 feet long. The group that discovered it was smart enough to observe from afar. Citizens nicknamed it King Cobra, fittingly. On floor 24 was a griffin-like creature that lived in a giant nest on the peak of the mountain. It was given the nickname Skyscraper based on the long talons that looked like they could tear the blue from the sky. The last one was discovered on floor 32, swimming in the middle of the ocean. The developers of SAO must have modeled it after the Lochness monster because that’s exactly what it was. Everyone called it Nessie.

Player levels were crafted through experience and hard work. The more the player fought, the higher their attack power was. If the player utilized their charge ability then their speed leveled up too. The same thing went for jump boosts and stealth ability. Different weapons had certain ability boosts, like swords with extra damage ability, and shields with greater defense boost. Armor also provided the much-needed defense boosts that were incredibly helpful the higher the floor you were in. Every player had the same amount of base health, which meant that getting better armor and increasing your skills was absolutely necessary if you wanted to travel to higher floors. There were also extra clothing choices that players could buy to wear over their armor if they wanted to, but those were purely aesthetic and didn’t provide any benefits combat wise.

After we decided to get new armor before attempting to fight again, we ditched our old, cheap armor from lower floors and spent a good chunk of our savings on brand new gear. I picked out a pair of dark green military style pants with the ends stuffed into a pair of black boots. There was a thick iron plated protective grey shirt under a black flight jacket. My sword was strapped into a leather belt that was wrapped over my shoulder and across my chest that went down to my hip in a diagonal shape. Costia wore something similar, but her pants were a dark navy and she opted out of the flight jacket.

On top of the new armor, we also went to get new swords crafted for us. It took all of the minerals we had in our inventories, but the new swords were twice as good as our old ones. Costia received a silver sword from her iron deposits, and I got another black sword from mine, plus extra deposits that I paid for that the blacksmith already owned.

We had better gear and were ready to resume training. We fought for the rest of that first day. I was getting better at attacking without tripping or missing all of the time. When an enemy moved out of my way in the middle of my advances, I was now able to shift on my feet and change my plan of attack in a split second decision and pull it off flawlessly. Because of my new armor and sword, my direct hits were doing twice as much damage and I didn’t lose nearly as much health as before.

Costia was doing well too, but I have to brag and say that I was probably doing better than her, which is amazing because she was the one who first taught me how to fight back in the mountains. It felt like a lifetime ago. I was getting better with every slash of my sword. In just one day of training I proved to myself that maybe, just maybe, I was actually cut out for fighting.

Which is why that day was going to be such a good day because we had decided that the month of rigorous training on various floors had given us enough experience and skill that we felt confident enough to enter the next floor–the  _ present  _ floor. The floor that held a dungeon that had yet to be cleared. Floor 40.

“Are you ready?” Costia asked.

I took a deep breath in and released it all at once with a smile. “Yeah,” I said.

Costia reached out and took my hand (a thing that she did every time we were about to enter the portal to a new floor. She would take my hand like she was afraid we would get separated on our way through the portal. I understand, of course, because we were living in a world where death could us at any turn.) I could hardly imagine doing this, the fighting, without Costia. We made a pact that no matter what might happen to either of us we would never stop fighting for our freedom, even if it was alone. It hurt to even think about that situation, but I always pushed it to the back of my mind.

We walked through the portal and arrived on the other side. The new town was almost entirely made of mud and stone and it smelled awful. I didn’t know why anybody would ever choose to work or live in that town.

Costia came up with a brilliant idea for the two of us to go around the town to ask other players about the current progress of the floor. We first asked the owner of a tailoring cart. He told us how he heard of the dungeon being taken on by a guild but he didn’t know the name. The next person we asked was a player buying healing crystals from an NPC merchant. He didn’t know much more than the last guy but he informed us that large groups of players often stayed at the town inn. We thanked him and made our way to the large dome-shaped building made of mud.

There were two round tables on each side of the front desk of the Inn that was occupied by different groups of people. An old woman working the front desk came up to us after she noticed our curious looks. We probably looked lost. “Hello my dears,” she said. “I wish I could help you ladies out but all of our rooms are booked. There’s another town 10 miles away that might have more space than we do. I can give you directions if you want,” she offered.

“Actually,” Costia began, “we were wondering if you knew anything about the guild that wants to clear the dungeon soon.”

She smiles, “Oh! I think I can help with that. There’s a guild named The Grounders that have been staying here since the found the dungeon. It’s crazy! Every guild here had been looking for the dungeon nonstop for 3 weeks, and as it turns out it’s only a mil about from this town. They went to the floor border and back only to find that their weeks of time were for nothing. The Grounders found it on the side of a cliff. They've just been preparing to take it down for a couple of days now, but they said they were going to clear it tomorrow afternoon.”

“Do you know where we can find them?” I asked.

The woman nodded. “They’ve been strategizing on the top of the cliff since they found the opening. It’s almost a straight walk behind the Inn. Just follow it until you see them. They should b out preparing for quite a few more hours.”

“Thank you so much,” Costia said.

The two of us left the inn quickly and made our way towards the cliff. Floor 40 looked like a clay and mud desert. Everything was flat, wet, and hot. We walked over numerous sets of footprints imprinted in the mud before we saw a group of players in the distance. We hardly walked more than a couple of minutes before we were able to see them easily. The barren expanse of the desert had its advantages. We began to run.

The group turned around once they heard our footsteps. They were all dressed in dark clothing, spikes resting on their shoulders. I could describe them with one word: intimidating. None of The Grounders said anything and instead sized up the two young girls who looked scared out of their minds.

“Who are you?” One of the younger guild members said. She was only a few years older than me.

“My name is Lexa,” I answered. “And this is Costia,” she waved.

“We heard that you guys were going to clear the dungeon tomorrow,” Costia stated.

“We are. Hopefully,” the girl responded. “Why?”

I blurted out an answer before I even had time to think about it. “We want to go.”

“Go where?”

“I, um. What I mean is, uh. We want to go too. We want to join you tomorrow.”

The girl laughed. Her expression changed the moment she realized that nobody else was laughing. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t we be?” Costia asked.

“Well,” the girl thought for a moment. “Citizens don’t typically ask to get their heads chopped off.”

“We aren’t citizens,” I snapped back, probably a bit too harsh.

The girl laughed again. Sorry, it’s just, you clearly haven’t ever fought on the front lines before.”

“How do you know?” Costia asked.

“Well for one you guys came up to us looking terrified and stumbling over your words. And two, you clearly haven’t seen something as horrifying as someone dying right in front of you, because nobody who has seen that would be this eager to fight in a dungeon.”

“We know how dangerous it is out there, but we still want to fight. We want to do our part,” I said.

“Are you sure? We’ve lost 10 guild members in dungeons. We know the risks of entering the boss room. We know that it’s possible one of us won’t come back out alive. We know it’s possible that none of us will come back alive.”

“Why fight if you don’t feel optimistic about the outcome,” Costia asked.

“We hope for a positive outcome but we know that we would gladly die to free our families and friends. We will gladly die for any innocent children trapped in here, held hostage from their parents. Will you?” She questioned.

That question took me by surprise at first. Of course, I would die for Anya and Lincoln. I would do it then and I would do it now. I would have done it for Costia too, but I didn’t want to break any of their hearts like that. I didn’t want to die when I didn’t have to, but if I wanted to help then I had to do whatever it took. My only answer could have been yes.

“I will,” Costia said without hesitation.

I stared at her for a moment. She had never looked stronger to me than in that moment. She looked back at me with a smile. I returned it.

“Me too.”

The girl sighed, turning around to look at the rest of the guild. They raised their eyebrows at her in response. She turned back around and opened her mouth to speak. “I’m Echo. You can come with us tomorrow. Show us what you can do, and if we like you enough then we’ll consider letting you tag along for good.”

I felt my grin go wide and I swore I could feel it on Costia too. We nodded enthusiastically.

“Good. Sit down and we’ll explain to game plan,” Echo said.

Costia and I moved past Echo and took our seats next to the rest of the guild to introduce ourselves.

I couldn’t wait for the next day.  

***

The next day turned into the current day at an agonizingly slow pace, but eventually, I found myself standing on the edge of the cliff again with Costis and The Grounders. The opening to the dungeon was visible when you stuck your head over the edge to look down. The opening seemed to be a good 100 feet down from the top. Jumping off the cliff would have surely left us with an early death, so The Grounders came up with a plan to get to the dungeon by scaling the cliff using knives to stick into the clay and slowly lowering ourselves down. It sounded simple, but boy was that an understatement.

Not only did I nearly slip off and fall to my death, but so did Echo. In fact, so did Costia. Actually, everybody nearly slipped off. It was a miracle that we all made it to the bottom without falling. I wiped the sweat off of my forehead with the back of my sleeve and sighed out in relief.

The entrance to the dungeon looked just like a cave, but we could clearly see the colorful walls inside, making us know for certain that we had reached the front of the dungeon.

“Okay, guys. Keep a healing crystal in your pocket and always keep a hand on your sword. You two haven’t fought in a dungeon before so you need to be on alert. Minions will drop down from the ceiling and relentlessly kill you if you aren’t paying attention. They’ll come from the shadows and from behind. Titus has your backs. Let’s go,” Echo ordered.

Our group began stepping slowly down the hall of the orange-walled dungeon. A few enemies lurking in the shadows came at us but we took them down with relative ease. I managed to kill three enemies myself, only getting hit twice. Costia killed two and was hit once. The Grounders killed double what we had and didn’t get hit once.

“You guys are really good at combat,” I said.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at handling the lowly minions. Bosses are a lot harder. You guys are doing pretty well for your first time though. We thought you’d be running for the hills already. Keep it up and you can stick with us,” Echo winked. The affirmation made me feel proud. “We aren’t going to spend time clearing the whole dungeon before fighting the boss. The loot isn’t worth the possibility of losing more people. We would typically spend a couple of days going through the whole dungeon first, but we spent way too long looking for this place. If we want to clear the game quickly then we can't waste time having fun. Find the boss and get out. That’s the plan.”

I agreed and continued following Echo through the dungeon. We skipped over doors that most likely were trap rooms or loot rooms that would have forced us to kill all of the enemies inside before we could leave. Echo moved with such confidence. I was kind of jealous. I wondered what I would have had to do in order to gain that much confidence and courage. Even though I was exactly where I wanted to be, I still trembled like a baby bird. It was a mixture of fear and adrenaline but it wasn’t enough to deter me from moving forward. I could do it.

After what felt like hours of tip toeing and fighting, we stumbled upon the door to the boss. We knew it was the right door because it was twenty times larger than any other door in the dungeon, but I was surprised we had actually found the room because the whole place looked exactly the same throughout all turns. I was beginning to think we were just walking in circles.

Echo reached out and touched the door. It opened at a slow pace and with a loud creak. Inside was a larger than normal centaur holding an axe. Surrounding it was a dozen blood wolves foaming at the mouth.

“Titus and I will distract the boss. The rest of you take care of the minions. Once they’re all dead you will immediately turn your attention to the boss. Don’t hesitate to scream for help if you get caught in a bind. Let’s go,” Echo ordered.

And before I had a chance to process it, the fight had begun. The centaur swung the axe it held in every direction, desperate to kill any who opposed it. I busied myself with wrestling a blood wolf. I jumped over one that charged at me only to be tackled to the ground by another. The wolf was just about to take a bite out of my throat when it pixelated on top of me, revealing that Costia was behind it with a grin on her face. “Thanks,” I said right before plunging my own sword into the eye of the wolf behind Costia. I grinned back.

Once all of the wolves were dead, the rest of us charged at the centaur. He was a lot smaller than a lot of the other bosses I had heard about at the time. His size made it easy for us to dodge attacks and keep each other out of harm's way.

I landed a hit on the front of the boss, but it retaliated by swinging the axe at me, which caused me to be thrown back against the wall, hitting it with a hard thud and falling to the ground. Titus grabbed me by the arm and charged himself forward at the boss. He then threw me into the air like a slingshot. I finally understood what was happening and pointed my sword in front of me. It slid easily into the side of the centaur and then right back out again when the boss fell to the ground with a yelp. It scrambled itself back up and charged in my direction, but it was stopped when Echo sliced her sword across its two back legs. It tripped and rolled across the expanse of the room and its life was ended when Echo stood over it and stabbed it in the heart.

The battle was hard and exhausting. We were all panting by the end of it, bent over with our hands on our knees.

It was tiring, but it was oh so exhilarating. I heard Titus congratulate everyone for our job well done, trying to get everyone to high five each other. I received a good amount of cor and a pair of gloves that provided a better grip and warmth. I knew I would definitely be using those in the future. They were also black, which I appreciated.

After we accepted our reward, a portal opened up at the back of the room. It was the most excitement I had ever felt at the time. I was going to be among the first people to enter a brand new floor because they had cleared it.  _ I  _ had cleared it.

“One more down,” Echo said

“60 more to go,” I finished with great pride.

***

The first dungeon that I finally had the opportunity to clear was just that. It was just the first one, not my last. After Costia and I cleared the 41st floor with The Grounders two weeks later, we were asked to become permanent members. We stepped through the portal to the 42nd floor and were immediately sent a surprise invitation upon arrival. I held back my tears and I pressed the accept button. “ _ You’ve proven yourselves. Welcome to our family  _ ,” Echo had said.

I felt so proud in that moment. It was only a month and a half ago when I left Anya and Lincoln back on floor 17, but I was already clearing floors and inching the population closer to freedom. I filled me with such joy knowing that I was doing something to help. I didn’t ever plan on stopping.

We’d been on floor 42 for a week searching for the dungeon along another guild that called themselves Skaikru, which was Trigedasleng for sky people. We met when The Grounders were grinding skill levels and cor inside of a cave. Skaikru came to do the same exact thing and stole our kills, claiming that we had our time and to move along. Eventually, we came to an agreement that we would share the kills and the loot. Sharing the cave turned into exchanging conversation and then teaming up to find and take down the next dungeon. It made sense to form an alliance. Each floor grew harder and harder and one day everyone would realize that it became nearly impossible to defeat a dungeon without the assistance of several guilds.

Our two guilds advanced through the forest, searching for anything that resembled the entrance to a dungeon. After hours of searching, we all decided to stop and camp for the night.

“Want to go catch some fish for dinner?” Costia asked.

“Yeah, just give me a sec,” I replied. I waved my left hand to signal my inventory open in order to pitch my tent. I selected it and placed it on the ground before turning back to Costia and smiling. “Lead the way.”

Costia reached out and took my hand. “I heard the stream over here before we stopped.”

We walked leisurely through the forest, hand in hand until we came upon a stream that we followed with the current to find the mouth. We took out our fishing rods and cast them into the water.

“You’ve gotten really good at fishing, you know,” Costia chuckled.

“I know,” I said with a grin. “Isn’t too hard when you just have to sit here.” We fished in silence for a few minutes before Costia spoke again.

“Thank you,” she said in a quiet voice.

I turned to look at her, a confused expression on my face. “For what?” I said.

“For everything. For taking me with you.”

“I didn’t have much of a choice, did I? You would have come with me even if I said no,” I winked.

She rolled her eyes at me, “Maybe. I really looked up to you. You sounded so sure of yourself. You had so much confidence. It inspired m to be like that too, which is why I made the impulsive decision to come with you.”

“It was impulsive?”

“Sort of. I mean, I wouldn't have gone alone. I wouldn’t have gone if it were with anyone else. Fighting peaceful creatures is one thing. Fighting in dungeons is another. I probably wouldn’t have decided to come if you had even given us a day's notice. I would have weighed all of the pros and cons before coming and probably would have chickened out and watched you leave without me. It was because it was impulsive that I was able to go without chickening out. And you know what?” she asked.

“What?”

“I’m so glad I did,” she gifted me with a warm smile.

I felt myself mirror her expression. “Me too.”

Hers grew ten times wider. It was the most genuine smile I had ever seen her show. Her bright teeth were on full display and I could see the joy in every muscle on her face. The smile was wiped away when Costia nearly fell into the water due to the jolt sent from her fishing rod.

“Reel in!” I yelled.

Costia reeled in with force, digging her heels into the mud to gain traction. What emerged from the water was a fish twice our size. It had fins the length of both of our heads. It was clearly rare since it came with a recipe for fire cooked fish skewers.

“Looks like I’m making dinner tonight,” I laughed. She did too.

***

The Grounders and Skaikru found the dungeon over two weeks later. The door was situated between two large boulders in the middle of an extremely dense forest. The brush was so thick that we had actually missed the door the first two times we trekked through. We camped outside of the dungeon for a week, preparing to enter and clear the dungeon fully before taking on the boss since there were two guilds instead of one. We killed for our food instead of buying in order to save cor for another gear upgrade in the future. It was becoming increasingly expensive for The Grounders to keep their gear updated for the current floor, so saving a measly 10 cor per meal was crucial.

Once we gathered enough food and healing crystals for both guilds, we decided to enter the dungeon. The walls were black with bright red fires lighting the hall. That dungeon was different from any other dungeon ever seen before. Costia and I had only seen a few dungeons at that point, so we didn’t know that it was odd to see a dungeon that looked like it did, but the members of both The Grounders and Skaikru were highly surprised.

“Well, that makes everything easy,” Echo said, gesturing to the boss room door, shut tight at the very end of the hallway. Between us and the door were dozens of more doors leading us into rooms that were surely filled with traps and enemies.

Sinclair, the leader of Skaikru, ushered for us to begin clearing the rooms, starting with the first one to our left.

The insides of the room were similar to the outside. It was all black with red fire lighting the four walls, one fire on each wall. Nothing seemed to be inside when we first walked in, but we knew something was up because it was rare for a dungeon room to not have some type of trick. The rooms would lure the players in with the promise of a free chest of loot and then would close the door and bombard the player with a hundred demons eager to rid them of their life.

Except, this room didn’t have anything inside except for us and the fire. We stood at the entrance to the room and waited for something, anything, to happen. Echo stepped forward first, and that was when a monster resembling a bipedal chimp wearing armor and holding daggers dropped down from the ceiling with a strike into Echo’s shoulder, successfully knocking her to the ground. Sinclair kicked the enemy off of Echo and engaged with it, slicing until it shattered and pixelated to the floor. Ten more fell from the ceiling and charged with fervor. We killed off the remaining enemies but were stopped from leaving the room when another group dropped down.

Half an hour later and the first room was cleared. The rooms of floor 42 were definitely harder than they were on floor 41, and they took longer too. They weren’t too hard to manage by both guilds though, but after seven rooms, we had to stop for the day to recover. We left the dungeon and returned to our camp outside.

The next day worked out pretty much the same way. We cleared more rooms and killed more enemies. We collected our cor and used up more healing crystals than we wanted. We ate food and drank copious amounts of water. We did that the next day too. I received a nice weapon drop from one of the rooms. It was the same style sword I was already using, but it was brand new and had grooves that rested at the base of the blade and granted a strength boost, which prompted me to swap my old weapon immediately.

The day after that was identical as well. We cleared more rooms until there weren’t any left to clear. The only room left was the room the boss resided in. Our groups left the dungeon once more to rest before the final fight. We conversed about the length of time it had begun taking in order to locate and defeat the most recent dungeons, figuring that it was about time everyone joined together to beat the game. It was becoming too hard to do alone.

Echo had a great idea to send each guild in a different direction on the floor with the leaders of each guild in constant communication. Once the guild would find the entrance, they would send an alert to every other leader to let them know. Then they were to all meet up again outside and work together to take it down.

A Skaikru member, Pike, shot it down by saying that multiple groups could not cooperate to such a degree. It was true that not all groups could work together in harmony, but that didn’t mean that three or four wouldn’t. It was a good idea. Echo said that our guild would try our best to get the word out.

I unzipped my tent after telling the guild members that I was going to message my family. I had done that a few times. I sent messages to Anya and Lincoln every day during the first week after Costia and I left, but since then I had only done it a few more times. I zipped my tent up and opened my friend list, selecting Anya and Lincoln’s names to send a voice message to.

“Hey!” I said. “I’m outside of the 42nd dungeon right now! We’re going to fight the boss tomorrow morning.” I ended and sent the message. Not a minute later I received a reply back from Anya.

_ “Hey! You better stay safe or I’m really going to regret giving you more freedom. I expect you to come back and visit soon.” _

I smiled at Anya’s way of showing how worried she was. I replied back.

“I will. I promise. The moment my guild decides to take a quick break I’ll be on my way back to floor 17 to see you guys. Costia misses you too.”

_ “We miss her too. I’m serious though. Please be careful. Run away if you need to.” _

I wanted to reply back with something along the lines of “I would never run away from a fight. I’ve proven my capabilities. I’m not who I was two months ago,” but I understood Anya was just scared for my safety, so I didn’t.

“Don’t worry. Everything has been fine so far. And it’s not just my guild this time! We have another guild with us, so I have double the help. I’ll be fine tomorrow. I’m gonna go to sleep now. Big day ahead! I’ll talk to you later. Night!”

_ “Sleep well. Love you. Lincoln loves you too.” _

I let out a yawn and closed my menu. I was more than ready to sleep the day away. The recent days had been so labor intensive, and the next day would be just as intense, but after that, I would have a couple of weeks of more leisurely fighting. I thought so, at least.

I thought the next day would be another great day. Tomorrow was just one more step towards freedom.

***

“Let’s go,” Sinclair ordered with a point at the boss room door. Our two groups ran inside with our swords ready to attack. I positioned myself behind Titus, covering his back. Costia was on the opposite side of the room at the front with her back to Echo’s.

With all of our backs covered we slowly inched further into the room. The boss had yet to reveal itself.

“Lexa. Up,” Echo said.

I raised my head to look at the ceiling. The black walls made it hard to see, but I could just barely make out the fact that there was nothing hanging above us, which was a nice change from many of the rooms we had fought in the recent days. “Nothing,” I replied.

Everything was silent for the next couple of minutes. Our teams looked around every part of the room and still, nothing seemed to be there. I wondered. Were we missing something? Was it a glitch in the game? Were we going to be stuck on floor 42 forever? Surely something had to be wrong.

That was when the silence was broken by a Skaikru man yelling “The door!”

All heads in the room whipped to face the front of the room. The entrance was shut closed, effectively locking us in. In front of the sealed door was the most terrifying enemy I had seen yet. It had pure white skin that appeared to have been decaying for decades. It stood thirty feet tall, arms drooped down past its knees. It had razor sharp claws, each a foot long, and its lower jaw was missing and unable to cover the razor sharp fangs digging into its own chest. Small pixels were dancing on top, showing its teeth were sharp enough to hurt itself by the lightest touch.

“Shit,” Echo hissed. “Get into formation, now!” Everyone did as they were told. Titus moved to stand at the front of the group along with Pike and Sinclair. Costia and I stood in the middle with a few other members of each guild. Echo stayed in the back with the remaining members. “Now!” she shouted. The three men at the front lunged forward simultaneously with their swords pointed at three different angles. Titus had his sword straight out in front of him, angled slightly upwards to be aimed at the lower abdomen of the beast when he was ready to jump. Pike pointed his to the left, ready to slash the left ankle while Sinclair prepared to slash the right. We hoped the heavy monster would come crashing down easily, but we were unsuccessful.

Its sharp claws slashed across all three of their chests at once. They flew back to the floor past the other players. Those of us in the middle took our chance and sprung into action with five members bringing their shields out front to protect us behind them while also swinging their own swords. Costia ran forward and to the left in order to grab the attention of the boss. It swung a hand towards her, a single claw nearly reaching her body, just before I could jump over the shield bearers and slice that finger clean of its body. It fell to the floor and pixelated within seconds.

“Nice job, Lexa!” Echo called out.

The beast shrieked at the loss of its finger. The anger and pain drove it to insanity as it swung both arms frantically, destroying the columns on the sides of the room. A few members of both guilds were struck during the outburst.

“On the back!” Echo shouted towards Sinclair. He was just about to rush forward when Pike took the liberty of doing so first. Pik slid underneath the bottom between its legs. Before he could even get back on his feet a sharp claw ripped into his arm, hooked him, and threw him into the wall. The boss growled and ran across the room to the other side, picking Pike up once more and smashed him into the ground with its enormous fist. Underneath the flying rubble, I could just barely see the remnants of glass and pixels cracking with the sound following shortly behind it.

“Pike, no!” Sinclair shouted.

“Keep your eyes on the boss, Sinclair! Back, now!” Echo ordered.

Sinclair grunted with pure anger in his eyes. He charged back towards the boss, doing the exact same thing that Pike had done by sliding underneath the enemy. Sinclair was much faster though, probably due to the speed boost his special boots gave him because he was able to quickly regain his footing. He jumped high and kicked himself even higher with the wall behind the boss. He landed on the back of the enemy and shoved his sword deep into the back of its neck. It screamed again, reaching back behind itself in an attempt to grab Sinclair. He responded by lowering himself to avoid contact. It kept swatting its hand at the man on its back with no use. Sinclair pulled his sword out of its neck and plunged it back in at the shoulder blade. That time the boss was able to shake him loose and sent him back to the floor with the rest of us, but not before Sinclair took his sword with him with a long gash opening from the top of the boss’ shoulder all the way down to its lower back.

The pain from both direct hits caused the boss to fall to its knees. Echo took the opportunity to charge at it with full force, ordering the rest of us to do the same. Every member of our groups charged at it with malicious intent. Because of the boss’ position, we were able to land multiple direct hits, but not without landing a few of its own on us. The boss dug a deep gash in the side of Echo’s arm. She stumbled backward trying to fight through the pain.

I took charge at that moment after I realized Echo wouldn’t be able to utilize the arm she used to fight. “I got it!” I said with a thrust of my sword in the direction of the enemy. A shield bearer crouched in front of me and I ran as fast as my body let me. I took a small leap on top of the shield-bearer. He began to stand the moment he felt contact and I used that momentum to jump even higher by springing on his back and forcing him back to the floor. I, six feet above its head, grabbed my sword with both hands tightly grasping the handle and raised my arms over and behind my head, my sword then pointed straight at the ceiling. When I was just two feet above it I forced my sword back over my head and into the skull of the beast. My feet landed firmly on its forehead. I could feel the virtual brain around my blade and it let out the loudest shriek I had ever heard. The power of how it shook its head after feeling such pain caused my body to be flung into the air and onto the floor.

The next moment was a blur.

I heard a scream that I recognized.

I heard my name.

I felt a weight on top of me that became lighter by the second.

I saw my best friend.

I saw her lips move.

I didn’t see her anymore.

I saw pixels and glass. Behind those pixels stood Echo with her sword cutting into the boss’ neck. I watched it fall to the ground, dead. A menu appeared in front of my eyes showing me my rewards for winning. I didn’t move a muscle as I laid there on my back, my elbows propping my head up, one knee bent. I didn’t see anything after that. I could just barely hear Echo mumble something about Costia.

_ Costia. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you she'd die soon. Yikes. We're getting closer to Clarke though! I think the next update might be shorter in length. My chapters lengths aren't based on how long I want them to be but they are actually just based on certain events and how much I wanted to write in order to get it shown in the plot. Chapter 1 was shorter because that event was just getting the game, which I didn't want to write for so long. Chapters 2-4 were longer because I had more to write there! Chapter 2: Being in SAO for the first time and finding out they're trapped. Chapter 3: Dealing with being trapped and Lexa coming to terms with what she wants. Chapter 4: Being out on her own for the first time and Costia dying. A lot more going on there. 
> 
> Next chapter will be shorter because it's all about grieving and the decision she makes that really moves the plot forward and I don't want to wait any longer to move to plot forward. SO. 
> 
> Next time: Lexa grieves Costia and makes a decision. 
> 
> Next, next time (AKA Chapter 6): Clarke makes an appearance. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!


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